The United States may lift immigration bans on people who have been diagnosed HIV-positive, the AP reports.

The ban is about two decades old, and the U.S. is on a short-list of countries that currently has a ban in place. Also on the dozen-long list are: Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Russia.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) is spear-heading the bill that would repeal the ban: “There’s no excuse for a law that stigmatises a particular disease,” Kerry said on Tuesday in a speech to the Centre for Strategic & International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu or the Ebola virus are judged on a better standard than those with HIV when it comes to applying for visas, he said.