Press room ... 1997 archive

President Clinton De-prioritizes HIV/AIDS
Funding in Budget Agreement

May 23, 1997

San Francisco, CA—Project Inform, a leading national HIV/AIDS treatment and research advocacy organization, reacted with outrage to news that President Clinton failed to negotiate priority funding for HIV/AIDS and other critical health care programs as part of the budget agreement. While publicly touting a new AIDS vaccine initiative in the media, the President has quietly reached a budget agreement with the Republican leadership in Congress that de-prioritizes most of the federal health care programs, including those for people living with HIV/AIDS. Moreover, the Administration has reneged on its commitment to support a request for Fiscal Year 1997 supplemental funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which is currently unable to deliver drugs to people who need them in many areas of the country. This comes at a time when the Administration is poised to announce new Federal Guidelines calling for wide scale use of expensive new treatments for AIDS. Refusing to fund promising treatment to those in need and de-prioritizing HIV/AIDS programs, while touting an empty HIV vaccine project with no funding attached to it, demonstrates the President’s complete lack of true commitment to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Martin Delaney, Founding Director of Project Inform, said: “How can we see this as any but outright hypocrisy? Whenever the cameras are running, the President is posturing over his deep concern for the worldwide AIDS epidemic, wiping a calculated tear from his eye. But the minute the doors close, he engages in these unconscionable political deals with the Republican right wing. Why should anyone take him seriously when he proclaims his new commitment to an AIDS vaccine?”

The federal budget agreement, which sets the context for the budget resolution, outlines the programs that are considered national priorities. Programs conspicuously absent from the national priority list include nearly every federal health program. Specific HIV/AIDS programs missing from the list include:

The Ryan White CARE Act, which provides care and treatments for people living with HIV/AIDS;
The National Institutes of Health, which supports most of the nation’s biomedical and behavioral research for all major illnesses;
The Center for Disease Control, which funds HIV prevention programs;
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration;
The Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS and other important health programs.

Programs which have priority are more likely to be protected from cuts and receive the funding they need in a climate of reduced government commitment to domestic investment. Programs which do not receive priority status will be forced to struggle for needed funding and may receive level funding or substantial cuts. Priority status directly reflects the Administration’s and the Congressional leadership’s commitment to crucial health programs.

“In light of the more effective treatments recently approved for fighting HIV/AIDS and the continued growth in numbers of AIDS cases, the government should be increasing its commitment to people living with this disease rather than de-prioritizing it,” said Anne Donnelly, Public Policy Director. “Many people living with HIV/AIDS are unable to access promising treatments due to under-funded assistance programs. Thousands of HIV positive people are waiting for affordable housing in order to stabilize their lives and begin an effective treatment regimen. Targeted prevention programs are desperately needed in communities where the epidemic is emerging and where it continues to devastate. New treatments are promising, but far from a cure, and research is needed to develop even more effective therapies as well as new formulations of the treatments that are now available.”

In light of the evident need of HIV/AIDS programs and the administration’s demonstrated lack of commitment, Project Inform asks once again that the Congressional leadership and Appropriations committee members, who have consistently allocated more appropriate HIV/AIDS funding amounts than the Clinton administration, once again step forward to fill the leadership gap left by the President. One way or another, the government must continue to prioritize the funding of these and other important health programs.

“It’s a pretty sad moment for people with AIDS,” said Martin Delaney, “when we have to call on our friends in Congress, from both parties, to help overcome the actions of a president who continues to break his promises."