SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (SF) - WEDNESDAY August 3, 1988 Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: A1 Word Count: 740
Larry Liebert, Chronicle Washington Bureau Chief

A list of actions announced at the White House stopped far short of the wide-reaching changes that were urged in June by Reagan's own 13-member AIDS Commission. The panel conducted a yearlong study of the incurable virus that is believed to have infected as many as 1.5 million Americans.

In the commission's boldest move, its majority had urged federal anti-discrimination legislation as the only way to protect those carrying the virus from losing their jobs and homes and to persuade people to come forward to be tested for the infection.

Instead, the president issued a directive that all U.S. government agencies should protect federal workers with the AIDS virus, also known as HIV, by enforcing guidelines recently drawn up by the government's Office of Personnel Management.

The federal guidelines state that those infected with the virus "should be allowed to continue working as long as they are able to maintain acceptable performance and do not pose a safety or health threat to themselves or others in the workplace."

"This order means that HIV-infected employees should be treated in the same manner as those who suffer from other serious illnesses," said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. "In other words, you can't be fired for having the disease."

Rather than proposing federal legislation yesterday, the president urged "businesses, unions and schools to examine and consider adopting" similar policies.

And he ordered the attorney general to "provide me with an expeditious review of how the federal government should provide direction and leadership in encouraging nondiscrimination" against those with the virus.

Both of the candidates for president, Republican Vice President George Bush and Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, have endorsed the AIDS Commission's recommendation for anti-discrimination legislation. But some conservatives fiercely oppose such a law because they fear it would set a precedent for broader gay rights legislation.

Critics of Reagan's response to the AIDS crisis say the president ducked a tough issue.

"It's a puff piece, almost too predictable," said Bruce Decker, a gay Republican leader from Los Angeles who serves on Governor Deukmejian's advisory panel on AIDS.

"He punted," said Jeff Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "He missed an opportunity to overcome eight years of neglect."

Representative Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, a leading advocate of AIDS legislation in Congress, said of the administration, "They handpick a commission, and then don't even have the courage to accept its recommendations . . . Once again the president is hiding."

Reaction was mixed from members of the AIDS Commission, which was disbanded last month.

Retired Admiral James Watkins, the commission's chairman, issued a brief laudatory statement saying that Reagan's actions "go far in establishing the proper standards of conduct for all Americans" in handling the AIDS epidemic. But a White House official confirmed that Watkins was privately disappointed.

Dr. Frank Lilly, the New York geneticist who was the commission's only openly gay member, was openly critical of the president who appointed him. "We've got a blueprint for a national policy on AIDS," he said. "It's a piece of whole cloth. You can't pick and choose your own menu from it. I think that is very short-sighted on the part of the president."

One of the commission's more conservative members, Dr. William Walsh, director of Project Hope, said Reagan "took the right route on the discrimination thing because 36 states have already passed laws on it. I don't feel you should get into something that sensitive on the federal level in the middle of a federal election campaign."

Reacting to a report that called for government to spend another $3.1 billion a year combating and treating AIDS, Reagan took far more limited action yesterday.

He urged Congress to speed action on budget proposals he has already submitted, ordered federal agencies to study issues such as "out-of-hospital" care and expressed "concern" about drug abuse.

The president promised to "accelerate" development of AIDS vaccines and drugs and called for the Food and Drug Administration to "improve laboratory quality and blood screening tests" to prevent AIDS infection through blood transfusions.

He also ordered the Office of Management and Budget to "make certain there are no impediments to efficient use" of federal resources to combat AIDS.

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