For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke - 213.201.1525
PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS CALLS FOR END TO HIV/AIDS IN AMERICA
Advocates Demand Appropriations to Reach Goal
Los Angeles, Calif., January 31, 2006 – AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) tonight welcomed President Bush’s call for reauthorization of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act and new funding for AIDS drug programs in his annual State of the Union address.
“We’re glad the president sees an end to HIV/AIDS as part of his vision of a hopeful society,” said APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. “However, Mr. Bush has had six years to appropriate funding to end wait lists for life-saving HIV/AIDS medications in this country. This year, advocacy groups estimated that need at approximately $303 million and got $2 million. It is hard not to be skeptical when there is no will behind the words.”
Bush also proposed a new nationwide effort to work with “African-American churches and faith-based groups,” intended to “deliver rapid HIV tests to millions, end the stigma of AIDS and come closer to the day when there are no new infections in America.”
“The president is right to call attention to the tragic infection rates among African Americans,” Thompson said. “But bringing rapid HIV tests to millions and ending HIV/AIDS stigma in this country will cost billions. We will never ‘prevent, treat and defeat’ domestic AIDS at the rate we’re going.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 42,000 people are infected with HIV every year in the United States, while some 18,000 Americans die of AIDS each year. A decreasing mortality rate, largely the result of successful drug therapies, means there are now more people living with HIV/AIDS than ever before, with over 1.2 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS.
The federal government currently spends an estimated $12 billion on HIV/AIDS, primarily through the $2 billion Ryan White CARE Act, Medicare and Medicaid. The states spend another $6 billion.
“The administration would like us to believe that we are spending enough,” Thompson said, “rather than admit that budget rescissions to all non-defense spending has reduced CARE Act appropriations to below where they were two years ago.”
AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the largest non-profit AIDS service organizations in the United States, provides bilingual direct services, prevention education and leadership on HIV/AIDS-related policy and legislation. Founded by four friends in 1982, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.
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