Washington Blade - March 8, 2008
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) introduced the bill Friday saying it enjoys broad bipartisan support. The legislation would increase funding for the president's highly popular global AIDS relief program from $30 billion to $50 billion.

Using the global AIDS reauthorization bill as a vehicle for repealing the HIV immigrant and visitors ban dramatically improves chances for passing the repeal because the global AIDS measure enjoys widespread support and is expected to easily clear the House and Senate. Earlier proposals to repeal the HIV immigrant and visitors ban have died in committee and gay-supportive members of Congress have said a free-standing repeal measure would have little or no chance of passing.

Opponents of the repeal could introduce an amendment to remove it from the Senate bill. It could not be determined late Friday whether any senators planned to introduce such an amendment and what its chances are of being successful.

The clause in the bill repealing a controversial 1993 law banning foreign visitors and immigrants with HIV was not mentioned in press releases and statements announcing the global AIDS bill, dubbed the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

Lawmakers named the bill after Lantos, a popular Democratic congressman, and Hyde, a beloved Republican congressman, both of whom died recently after long careers as members of the House of Representatives.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee last month approved a similar bill reauthorizing the global AIDS program, but the House version does not include a provision repealing the HIV immigration and visitors ban.

Gay rights and AIDS activists have called on Congress to repeal the ban, calling it a violation of human rights. Opponents note that the U.S. is one of only 13 countries in the world to have enacted such a ban.

The other countries are Armenia, Brunei, China, Iraq, Qatar, South Korea, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

President Bill Clinton objected to the ban at the time then Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and other senators proposed it on ground that foreigners with HIV posed a threat to the public health in the U.S. However, Clinton signed the bill after supporters attached it to a boarder bill covering health programs that Clinton supported, drawing sharp criticism from gay and AIDS activists.

The 1993 law amended the existing U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act by designating "infection with the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome" as a communicable disease of "public health significance." The Immigration and Nationality Act requires that persons found to have a disease within that category cannot be admitted into the U.S. and must be deported if discovered already in the country.

Nearly all of the nation's public health organizations and experts have since said the ban is unnecessary.

The law allows federal public health officials to grant temporary waivers for the ban for foreign travelers who come to the U.S. for conferences or special events. Government officials granted such waivers in 2006 to foreign visitors to Chicago who attended the Gay Games, an international Olympic-type athletic competition held every four years in cities throughout the world.

U.S. organizers for the Gay Games said the HIV ban and the cumbersome application process for a waiver caused worldwide embarrassment for the American gay community and prompted many prospective attendees from Europe to decide against attending the event.

Spokespersons for the White House and Biden and Lugar could not be reached late Friday.

In a press release issued Friday afternoon, Biden and Lugar said the overall global AIDS reauthorization bill enjoyed bipartisan support and received the approval of the Bush administration.

Capitol Hill sources said the provision calling for repealing the HIV immigration and visitors ban could become controversial if opponents portray it as a significant change to U.S. immigration policies at a time when observers have described the climate for immigration reform as "poisonous."

The provision appears to incorporate the text of separate Senate and House bills introduced last year that called for repealing the HIV visitor and immigration ban.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced Bill S 2486, the HIV Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act of 2007, in December. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and other House members, including D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), introduced Bill HR 3337, which uses the same title as the Senate version, in August.

Human Rights Campaign, a gay political group, supports the proposed legislation.

"The time is long overdue to repeal this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV positive individuals inadmissible to the United States," HRC president Joe Solmonese said in a statement. "This law emerged out of fear and stigma and there remains no public health rationale for treating HIV more harshly than other communicable diseases."

080308
WB080301

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2008. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2008. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .