By Marlene Cimons

WASHINGTON _ The Bush administration will propose spending $873 million on

AIDS research for fiscal 1993, an amount that _ when adjusted for inflation _

means a reduction in spending on the disease, according to congressional

sources.

The 1993 proposal is for spending $32 million more than in the current

fiscal year, an increase of 3.8 percent. But that is less than the current

inflation rate for biomedical research of 4 percent to 5 percent, and just a

little more than half of the 7 percent increase proposed for other National

Institutes of Health research activities, sources said.

Word of the small increase evoked strong protests from AIDS investigators

nationwide who believe that AIDS research is at a crucial juncture. Many

researchers predicted that insufficient funding would translate into missed

opportunities.

``We have much more in the way of leads that we ought to be following than

we did four or five years ago,'' said Dr. Robert T. Schooley, an AIDS

researcher who heads the infectious diseases division of the University of

Colorado Health Sciences Center. ``Now is not the time to be cutting back on

the effort.''

The latest figures show a continuing loss of the edge that AIDS research

enjoyed during the early years of the epidemic, and may also reflect some of

the resentment believed to be smoldering within other biomedical research

programs over the huge increases AIDS activities received during that time.

The latest numbers show a particular erosion of support from the research

agencies' own parent, the Department of Health and Human Services, where the

biggest cut was imposed before the request was sent to the White House.

The funding level is not expected to be changed by Congress, which _ in

sharp contrast to earlier years _ has shown little inclination in recent

budgets to appropriate more money for AIDS than the president has requested.

Researchers predicted that the lack of funding would seriously damage

virtually every aspect of AIDS research, including drug and vaccine

development, immunology and virology.

``It's going to cut across all research lines _ vaccines, therapy, new

diagnostic breakthroughs,'' said Dr. Thomas C. Merigan, director of the center

for AIDS research at Stanford University. ``We have many new drugs in the

pipeline, and we're clearly not going to be able to test them as quickly as

possible.''

Schooley predicted that the vaccine program would be especially hard hit.

``Vaccine research has to be staged when the science is ready and now the

science is ready and the funds aren't there,'' he said.

Jeff Levi, director of government affairs for the AIDS Action Council, a

Washington-based lobbying group, said that the consequences could also ``spill

over into the contributions that AIDS research is making into other diseases.''

A health and human services official, who requested anonymity, defended the

department's AIDS research budget decisions Saturday.

``We have increased our effort in AIDS by over 50 percent since this

president has taken office,'' he said. ``It has been an extraordinary effort.

It is second only in support to cancer, although it is unfortunate that we have

to make these comparisons.

``Never have we spent so much per capita on any illness as we have on AIDS,

especially given what is occurring in other areas of the budget.''

The proposed 3.8 percent increase in AIDS research funding comes in a year

when overall domestic spending could rise as much as nearly 6 percent under a

1990 agreement between the White House and Congress.

The 1993 AIDS research request was cut at every step of the budget process.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of AIDS research activities for the National

Institutes of Health, sought $1.329 billion for all AIDS research. His request

went to National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Bernadine Healy, who reduced

the figure to $1.195 billion before sending it to Dr. James O. Mason, assistant

secretary for health and head of the Public Health Service. Mason cut it to

$1.009 billion.

The request then went to Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W.

Sullivan, who imposed the biggest cut in the process. Sullivan reduced the

request to $893 million before sending it to the Office of Management and

Budget, which then arrived at the final $873 million figure.

The White House in recent days has orchestrated a series of disclosures in

advance of the release of the federal budget to call attention to domestic

initiatives expected to receive favorable attention. AIDS funding, however, has

not been among them.

Earlier this month President Bush held a highly publicized meeting with

Magic Johnson, the HIV-infected former Los Angeles Laker guard who is now a

member of the National Commission on AIDS. At the meeting, Bush promised to do

more for AIDS and defended current administration spending.

``The president's recent assertion to Johnson that `we're doing everything

we can' is directly contradicted by these numbers,'' says Rep. Henry A. Waxman,

D-Calif., chairman of the House energy and commerce subcommittee on health.

``If he wants to know what should be done, he needs only to ask his

scientists.''