Congress Maintains Strong Commitment to Domestic HIV/AIDS Programs

AIDS Service Organizations including The AIDS Institute are praising Congress for maintaining a strong level of funding for care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Ryan White Program. They are disappointed with the HIV and Hepatitis Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not increase its investment in hepatitis prevention. And the regret that Congress will continue the funding ban on syringe exchange programs and will fund abstinence-only until marriage programs.

"The AIDS Institute commends the strong bi-partisan support to combatting HIV/AIDS in the United States by the U.S. Congress by maintaining funding for critically important domestic HIV programs for fiscal year 2015," commented Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. "Given the overall difficult budget restrictions, we are grateful for the Congress' continued attention to preventing infectious diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis, and the need to provide care, treatment and housing to people living with HIV/AIDS."

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides some degree of health care, medications and coverage completion services to roughly 554,000 low-income, uninsured and underinsured individuals with HIV/AIDS. The Congress is proposing to maintain funding at $2.3 billion in FY15, including $900 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The continuing need for the Program was underscored by recent CDC data that found only 30 percent of people with HIV in the U.S. are virally suppressed, and only 37 percent are prescribed antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The AIDS Institute is pleased the Congress rejected a proposal included in the President's budget that would have eliminated dedicated funding for Part D of the Ryan White Program and transferred it to Part C. Part D provides care and services for low-income women, infants, children and youth with HIV and AIDS.

The Congress has agreed to allocate about $787 million for HIV prevention at the CDC, a very slight decrease from the prior year. There continue to be about 50,000 new HIV infections each year and that number has not decreased for many years. The federal government allocates only four percent of its domestic HIV spending to prevention.

Funding for Hepatitis Prevention at the CDC would remain at approximately $31 million. The AIDS Institute is extremely disappointed that the Congress did not increase its investment in hepatitis prevention given the magnitude of the number of infections in the U.S. and the need for increased surveillance, testing and education in order to bring down the number of new infections and help people learn of their status. Increased testing would help people with hepatitis B and C by linking them to care and treatment, and hopefully, cure them.

Funding for the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) would continue to be funded at $330 million. Ongoing medical research at the National Institutes of Health under the bill would increase slightly by only $150 million.

Regrettably, the Congress is not following the scientific evidence, but rather will continue the funding ban on syringe exchange programs and will fund abstinence-only until marriage programs.

"Now that the 113th Congress is coming to a close, The AIDS Institute must soon turn its attention to a new Congress," commented Michael Ruppal, Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. "But before we do, we would like to recognize that Senate and House Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriation Subcommittee Chairmen Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Jack Kingston, will be leaving the Congress. The AIDS Institute thanks both of them for their service and leadership. We particularly salute Chairman Harkin for being a long-time health care champion and a strong voice for people with disabilities, including people with HIV and AIDS. We will certainly miss his leadership."

The AIDS Institute is a national nonprofit organization that promotes action for social change through public policy research, advocacy and education.

For more information, visit www.TheAIDSInstitute.org or www.facebook.com/The-AIDS-Institute.