ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230298
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

2 CONGRESSMEN URGE AIDS POLICY CHANGE

Two members of Congress called on the Bush administration on Tuesday to use its authority to lift immigration restrictions on people infected with the AIDS virus.

The administration says only Congress can change the restrictions. But Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and J. Roy Rowland, D-Ga., said that according to a legal opinion from the General Accounting Office, the administration has the power to modify the AIDS exclusion policy.

The administration has maintained it lacks the authority to lift the restrictions because they were ordered by Congress. In 1987, Congress directed the president to add infection with the AIDS virus to a list of diseases used to bar entry to the United States.

A statement issued by the Department of Health and Human Services said that officials read "with interest" the GAO legal opinion, but still hold to the administration's view. - Associated Press 


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