Washington Blade - August 22, 2003
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Sources familiar with the Bush administration said O'Neill was expected to retain his title as head of the White House AIDS office for an initial phase-in period. The sources said Christopher Bates, the gay acting director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at the Department of Health & Human Services, has emerged as the leading candidate for the post of deputy director of the White House AIDS office.

With O'Neill preoccupied with getting the global AIDS program up and running, Bates was expected to assume many of O'Neill's duties at the White House AIDS office, the sources said.

Bates, a longtime D.C. resident, has worked in various positions at HHS for the past five years. Bates served as O'Neill's deputy when O'Neill held the position of acting director of the HHS HIV/AIDS Policy office. Bates became acting director of the office in July 2002, when Bush named O'Neill as head of the White House AIDS office.

Two sources familiar with the White House said the administration was reluctant to name a replacement for O'Neill at the White House AIDS office, known as ONAP, out of concern over offending competing constituencies on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.

AIDS advocacy groups along with Democrats and moderate Republicans in Congress favor someone like O'Neill or his predecessor, gay Republican activist Scott Evertz, who have close ties to AIDS groups. Conservative activists and religious right groups have been calling on Bush to name a conservative to the position who favors abstinence-only until marriage programs as the nation's chief means of preventing the spread of AIDS.

Cautious, private approach

O'Neill, who began his government service at HHS under the Clinton administration, has taken a cautious approach during his tenure at the White House AIDS office. He has worked closely with conservative and moderate factions within the administration and Congress, drawing praise from Bush and Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

But O'Neill has played almost no public role, avoiding the speaking engagements and media accessibility that characterized the term of Evertz, his predecessor, and the AIDS czars during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Evertz was criticized by conservatives for publicly backing the promotion of condom use in safer sex education, and was eventually transferred to a position within the Department of Health & Human Services involving the funding of international AIDS prevention programs.

"It's unclear whether they would find an appointee to replace O'Neill who would not offend one group or faction or another," said one of the sources. "No names are circulating now of someone to replace him."

Bates, reached at his HHS office, declined to comment. White House spokesperson Allen Abney said the White House never comments on personnel action until a decision on an appointment is made and announced.

Mark Mead, a spokesperson for Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay GOP group, and Charles Francis, president of the Republican Unity Coalition, which bills itself as a gay-straight alliance of Republican activists, said they were unaware of who, if anyone, would replace O'Neill at the White House AIDS office.

"We're pleased with Joe O'Neill's new job," Mead said. Mead added that Log Cabin would "weigh in" with its own suggestions on who should be picked to replace O'Neill at the White House post.

Bates wins early backing

Bates has had ties to D.C.'s gay activist community for more than 20 years, although he has not been involved in leadership positions with gay advocacy groups since beginning work with the federal government.

The HHS Web site says that, as acting head of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy, Bates is in charge of promoting "coordination and collaboration among all HHS agencies to maximize the effectiveness of policy and program efforts within the areas of HIV surveillance and prevention; the provision of health care and services; substance abuse prevention and treatment; research; the development and testing of new drugs; training of health professionals, and publicly funded insurance programs."

Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS, said Bates has earned the respect of AIDS advocacy groups throughout the nation.

"He would come to ONAP as a bureaucrat, but a bureaucrat in the best sense of that word," said Anderson, who added that Bates has helped AIDS service organizations wend their way through HHS's vast bureaucracy.

O'Neill's appointment to the global AIDS office at the State Department comes one month after Bush named Randall Tobias, a pharmaceutical industry executive, to head that office as the Global AIDS Coordinator.

The office is charged with carrying out Bush's five-year, $15 billion global AIDS initiative, which is aimed at helping countries in Africa and the Caribbean cope with AIDS.

Some AIDS activists, while praising Bush for pledging to aid Third World and other countries in need of assistance on AIDS, criticized the administration for not devoting enough attention and funds for domestic AIDS programs. O'Neill appeared to respond to that criticism earlier this month when he spoke before the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in Washington.

O'Neill outlined the Bush administration's plans for domestic AIDS programs over the next year, saying the president was committed to innovative approaches to domestic AIDS treatment and prevention programs.

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