FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
House appropriations bill would devastate efforts to end the HIV epidemic
Contact: D. D’Ontace Keyes (communications@aidsunited.org)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee and the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee released its markup of the proposed bill for fiscal year 2025.
The proposed bills call for severe cuts to numerous programs that are essential to our efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States. These cuts would decrease funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program by $190 million, the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention by $214 million and the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund by $15 million. Funding for the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA) Program remained level from FY24 at $505 million.
Overall cuts to the agencies that oversee these programs included a massive 22% reduction in funding for the CDC and 7% to the Department of Health and Human Services as a whole.
AIDS United’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief Policy Officer, Carl Baloney Jr., urges Congress to reject the proposed cuts:
AIDS United worked tirelessly alongside grassroots HIV advocates to ensure that the proposed cuts in the FY24 bill did not pass. Now, we find ourselves, once again, in the same position we did last year, fighting to ensure these efforts to end the HIV epidemic are not undermined.
We know that the increased investment in programs for people living with and affected by HIV in recent years is making a difference. According to the most recent CDC HIV Surveillance Reports, new diagnoses of HIV in the United States decreased by 12% between 2018 and 2022, with a very promising 21% reduction in new HIV diagnoses occurring in the 57 priority jurisdictions included in the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative. This progress is only possible with robust funding increases from the federal government that allow our expansive HIV workforce to do their jobs to the best of their ability and to reach everyone who needs these lifesaving services.
Efforts to address racial, health and gender-based inequities that impact people living with HIV would be devastated if the proposed cuts are accepted. Programs like the Minority AIDS Initiative provide funding to initiatives led by and serving people of color. If these slashes to the funding were to be accepted, the effects on Black and Brown communities already disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic would be devastating.
While we are pleased to see that HOPWA Program funding has not been cut alongside other vital programs, housing remains the greatest unmet need of people living with HIV. Stable housing has been linked with better health outcomes and with data from the CDC showing that 17% of people diagnosed with HIV experienced homelessness or unstable housing it is evident that level funding is not enough.
Without the funding needed to sustain these programs we would likely see an increase in new HIV transmissions and a decrease in access to HIV treatment and care – devastating consequences that undermine over 40 years of HIV advocacy and progress.
Advocates must unite once more to ensure that Congress rejects these proposed cuts. We cannot allow the shortsightedness of a handful of elected officials to set us back in our efforts to end the HIV epidemic and provide all people living with and impacted by HIV with the care they need and deserve. AIDS United is committed to working alongside advocates and members of Congress to ensure that those vulnerable to and living with HIV retain their ability to live healthy lives.
AIDS United’s mission is to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. through strategic grant-making, capacity building and policy. AIDS United works to ensure access to life-saving HIV care and prevention services and to advance sound HIV-related policy for populations and communities most impacted by the U.S. epidemic As of January 2021, our strategic grant-making initiatives have directly funded more than $118 million to local communities, and we have leveraged more than $184 million in additional investments for programs that include, but are not limited to, syringe access, access to care, capacity-building, HIV prevention and advocacy.
