Officials within the Obama administration are interviewing candidates to lead the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, according to the Washington Blade. The position, once known as the AIDS czar, was left vacant for the last two years of the Bush administration, raising questions of whether Bush and his successor planned to discontinue the office.

The Blade reports:

[Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Melody] Barnes told the Blade that the Obama administration plans to retain the office and continue to have its director serve as a full participant on the White House Domestic Policy Council, which serves a key advisory role to the president on domestic issues, including AIDS.

Housing Works and other AIDS advocacy groups contacted the White House this week to inquire about an executive order President Obama issued Feb. 5 that appeared to downgrade the AIDS office director’s position in the hierarchy of White House jobs.

…

Christine Campbell, vice president for national advocacy and organizing for Housing Works, said the executive order’s wording pertaining to the AIDS office prompted her to contact the White House to find out whether the order downgraded the AIDS office.

In her response to the Blade’s inquiry, Barnes said the order uses “technical drafting language” to distinguish which White House staff positions are part of the Domestic Policy Council. She said the AIDS coordinator’s post has and continues to remain a member of the Domestic Policy Council.

Barnes told Campbell that the White House also hopes to receive funds from a fiscal year 2009 appropriations bill pending before Congress that “would allow us to do additional hiring” at the White House AIDS office.

Campbell said Housing Works and other AIDS organizations believe the Office of National AIDS Policy is as important as ever and should remain a part of the White House.

“I think that it’s absolutely needed because it’s extremely important that we develop a national AIDS strategy,” Campbell said.

“I think it has to be done in such a way that it is comprehensive and that there’s really a pulling together of all the government departments,” she said. “It’s not just a public health issue. It’s also a housing and jobs and veterans and justice issue. And all these different areas need to be working together.”