PI Action alerts & updates ... 1996

Fiscal Year 1997 Budget Battle
Set To Begin in House of Representatives

Congressional decisions regarding Fiscal Year (FY) 1997 AIDS research, care, and prevention funding are expected to begin on June 10, when the House Labor/Health and Human Resources (Labor/HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee will vote on funding levels. On May 30, the House Veterans Affairs/Housing and Urban Development (VA/HUD) Subcommittee flat-funded the AIDS housing program, leaving an uphill battle to obtain increased funding later in the process. Once again, grassroots support is essential to ensure that these programs receive adequate funding. Please contact your elected officials immediately!!

Action Needed:
Using the following background information and the enclosed sample letter for guidance, write your House Representative and urge his/her support for the increases in HIV/AIDS research, care, prevention and housing programs that have been identified by experts as the amounts needed to fight the epidemic. Letters should be faxed or mailed to your Representative no later than June 15. Follow up your letter with a phone call and ask if he/she will commit to supporting increases in AIDS funding. Please remember to send us copies of your letters and let us know of any responses you receive!!

Share this Alert with your friends, co-workers, loved ones, etc. Massive grassroots support has proven to be important in garnering bipartisan support for many AIDS programs. We are attempting to build on the success of AIDSWATCH ’96, when over 400 constituents met with their elected officials and asked them to sign a “Dear Colleague” letter from Representatives Gerry Studds (D-MA) and Connie Morella (R-MD) that calls for increased AIDS funding. So far, 102 Congressional Representatives have signed the letter!

If you have additional time:
Now is an excellent time to request a meeting with your Representative or a health care aide in his/her district office. It is a highly effective form of advocacy, and allows you to bring a personal perspective to the statistics and dollar figures. If you haven’t participated in a legislative meeting before, we can help you with the process. Call Project Inform’s public policy department at 415-558-8669 for more information.

Write a letter to your local newspaper highlighting the need for adequate funding for HIV/AIDS programs. Encourage readers to write and call their Congressperson with a similar message.

Background information:
The House and Senate recently passed their budget resolutions for FY 1997 (October 1, 1996–September 30, 1997). Budget resolutions, while not binding, provide guidance on how much money federal programs will receive. They also set caps on overall program area funding. It is expected that health programs will be given roughly the same amount of overall funding as last year.

Now that the budget resolution process is completed, the appropriations process (determining actual spending levels) is set to begin in the House Appropriations Committee. The committee is divided into several subcommittees that deal with a different account or set of federal programs. In the House, the subcommittee that sets funding levels for AIDS research, care, and prevention programs is the Labor/Health and Human Services Subcommittee. The Veterans Affairs/Housing and Urban Development (VA/HUD) Subcommittee determines funding for AIDS housing.

After the budget is approved by the subcommittees, it is reviewed by the full Appropriations Committee, then sent to the House floor. The process then moves to the Senate (expected this year to begin in late July) where it follows a similar procedure. A joint House/Senate conference committee will then convene to work out differences in the two budgets. The final product is ratified by the full House and Senate and sent to the President for his signature or veto.

Last year’s process was delayed well into 1996 while Congress and the President debated the overall budget and funding for entitlement programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. It is possible that expected battles over welfare and Medicaid reform could lead to another delayed appropriations process.

While there are many opportunities during this process to increase for AIDS programs, now is the time to advocate with House members since they currently making decisions about the budget. The following increases have been identified by experts as needed to match the growing epidemic:

AIDS Research:
Advocates are calling for a $157 million increase in AIDS-related biomedical and behavioral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), compared to the President’s request of a $24 million increase. This amount should be appropriated to the consolidated budget of the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) at the NIH. Many advocates feel that protecting the OAR consolidated budget is critical in coordinating AIDS research across the 24 Institutes, Centers, and Divisions that make up the NIH. While Project Inform has taken the position that the importance of the OAR consolidated budget may be overestimated, we are not opposed to the consolidated budget mechanism. While we attempted several times to contact staff at the OAR to obtain their professional opinion regarding the effect of the lack of the consolidated budget authority on their ability to plan and coordinate research activities at the NIH, no one was able to return our call by press time.

Care and Treatment Access:
The newly reauthorized Ryan White CARE Act provides funds for the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS. Experts have determined that an additional $385 million is needed for the program to keep up with the growth in the epidemic and the increasing costs of new HIV treatments. The President has requested a $73 million increase.

Title II of the CARE Act helps fund state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which provide HIV/AIDS treatments at no or low-cost to those who could not otherwise afford them. While this program received a significant increase in FY 1996, an additional $195 million has been identified by many advocates as the minimum needed to provide promising new treatments to people living with HIV/AIDS. The remaining $60 million increase for Title II is crucial to protect the infrastructure that provides for treatment access programs.

HIV Prevention:
Advocates are asking for a $154 million increase for HIV prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), compared to a $32.5 million increase requested by the President. Prevention programs have been significantly underfunded in recent years, and took a $5.5 million cut in the current fiscal year when the CDC was required to make administrative cuts in its budget.

AIDS Housing:
A $79 million increase for the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA) program has been identified as the minimum needed to match the growing number of jurisdictions eligible for grants. Unfortunately, the President has only asked for level funding, even though there were 12 new jurisdictions in FY 96 and another 10-13 jurisdictions expected in the coming year. Most cities and states that receive HOPWA funds have faced significant cuts in funding over the last two years.