encouragement of international efforts to combat the spread of HIV infection. Vice President George Bush, who was running for President at the time, immediately endorsed both an executive order and legislation to meet the commission's call for the extension of Federal anti-discrimination protection to those with AIDS and those who test positive for HIV. He emphasized children in his discussions with reporters: "My conscience has been advising me on AIDS.... I'd hate it if a kid of mine got a blood transfusion and my grandson had AIDS and the community discriminated against that child, that innocent child". Reagan said his drug policy advisor would review the report and make recommendations to him in 30 days. President Reagan later said he opposed such discrimination in principle but took no action before his term as president ended in January 1989. The administration took small steps. It acted to inform recipients of blood transfusions that they were at risk, made plans to speed FDA drug approvals, and developed proposals to add facilities for the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Anthony Fauci later described the significance of Watkins' military background to the debate over the nation's response to AIDS: "To have a presidential commission chairman with his background to come out so strongly against stigma and discrimination was a very, very important step". Randy Shilts called the report "a sweeping battle plan.... AIDS was war, Watkins reasoned, and in a war somebody must be in charge; that's how you get things done." Congress passed legislation sponsored by Representative Roy Rowland, a Georgia Democrat and the only physician in Congress, that created the National Commission on AIDS. The legislation specified that commission's members must be "individuals with experience and/or expertise pertinent to the AIDS epidemic". It produced several reports over the next 4 years. See also Office of National AIDS Policy National Commission on AIDS Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief References Further reading Arthur D. Kahn, AIDS, the Winter War: A Testing of America (Temple University Press, 1993) External links The Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic Report, June 24, 1988 Health policy in the United States HIV/AIDS organizations in the United States HIV Epidemic, President's Commission on the Presidency of Ronald Reagan