The report, while praising the administration for "dramatically improving the national response to AIDS," highlights key areas where the administration has fallen short. HRC called on the president and vice president to take decisive action in addressing the concerns of the council.

"The Human Rights Campaign endorses the theme of the advisory council's report, calling on the administration to exert stronger and bolder leadership on several fronts in order to continue its strong record on HIV and AIDS issues," said Winnie Stachelberg, HRC's political director.

The report praises the administration for increasing funding for HIV/AIDS programs, expediting the approval of new drug therapies and issuing an AIDS vaccine initiative, but points to a lack of progress in areas such as prevention and getting life-saving drug therapies to low-income people with HIV.

"Despite substantial and diligent efforts ... the progress in the federal response to AIDS has stalled in recent months, contributing to a sense of diminished priority for AIDS issues during the president's second term," the report stated.

The report also addresses the failure of the Department of Health and Human Services to find solutions that would re-tool Medicaid to provide life-saving drug therapies to low-income people with HIV early in the course of the disease. This past spring, Vice President Gore called for HHS to explore and report to him within thirty days on the feasibility of expanding Medicaid coverage.

"The current Medicaid eligibility system is seriously out of alignment with the recommended standard of care for the treatment of HIV disease," the report states. In addition, on Friday reports surfaced that the Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicaid, was unable to find a "revenue-neutral" way of expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income people with HIV.

"I strongly urge you, consistent with your long-standing leadership in fighting this epidemic, to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to redouble its efforts to make the Medicaid program more accessible to people with HIV and AIDS," HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch said in a letter sent Friday to Vice President Gore.

Gore, responding on Tuesday, said "This administration understands the urgency of finding innovative ways to ensure that all people with HIV benefit from the promise of new and effective treatments." He directed government officials to continue looking for ways to extend Medicaid to people with HIV.

Regarding prevention, the AIDS advisory report stated: "In one crucial area of the federal response to AIDS -- the national effort to prevent HIV transmission -- the administration, like its predecessors, has failed to lay out a coherent plan of action. Funding for HIV prevention remains inadequate, particularly when compared with the monumental American bill for medical expenses and lost productivity stemming from HIV disease." The report also called on the administration for bolder leadership to remove the congressionally initiated content restrictions on prevention programs and to exercising its authority to make federal funds available for needle exchange programs.

"Perhaps most disturbing is the continued prohibition of federal funding for needle exchange programs despite clear scientific evidence of the efficacy of such programs in preventing new HIV infections without increasing substance abuse," the report states.

"Today, our best weapon against AIDS is prevention," said Stachelberg. "It is completely incomprehensible that our government has the mechanisms to curb the spread of this disease with clear and targeted prevention strategies -- but continues to cater to ignorance by failing to break through political barriers."

"In order to take advantage of the solid achievements of this administration during its first term and to tackle still daunting issues regarding AIDS that remain, a renewed dedication to action is essential," the advisory council said in the report.

"President Clinton has done more to build a national response to AIDS than his predecessors," Stachelberg said. "It is our hope that President Clinton will listen to his advisory council and take aggressive action recommended in its progress report to build on this success to ensure that we as a nation are doing everything possible to curb the horrors of this disease."

The Washington Blade reported Friday that twenty-five gay people "active in business or philanthropic endeavors" paid approximately $10,000 each for the privilege of dining with the President December 1 at Washington's Mayflower Hotel.

The fundraiser, aimed at reducing the $13.2 debt of the Democratic National Committee, was attended, according to Blade reports, by such movement stalwarts as Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign; Brian Bond, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund; Keith Boykin, exeuctive director of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum; Hilary Rosen, co-chair of the of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

The dinner was also attended by members of the DNC and openly gay and lesbian appointees of the Clinton administration. Author Andrew Tobias exulted, "We're now being included in the routine process of raising money for the party with all the other constituencies."