For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke -
213.201.1525
AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES SAYS POLITICAL WILL AND FULL FUNDING NOW REQUIRED
TO REAUTHORIZE RYAN WHITE CARE ACT
Senate Adjourns Without Vital AIDS Bill
Los Angeles, Calif., September 30, 2006 – AIDS Project Los Angeles called for new efforts to reauthorize a fully funded Ryan White CARE Act after the U.S. Senate failed Saturday to reauthorize the bill before adjourning until after the November elections.
“The CARE Act has been reauthorized twice before with broad bipartisan support and nearly unanimous votes and we must do it again,” said APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. “Congress must find the political will to adequately fund this important legislation.”
The $2.1 billion CARE Act is the federal government’s response to the U.S. AIDS epidemic. All states, most large cities and over half a million people living with HIV/AIDS rely on CARE Act funding for life-saving care, treatment and support services.
Without reauthorization, the existing 2000 CARE Act law prevails, threatening jurisdictions such as California and Los Angeles with funding losses when formula allocations shift to HIV data in 2007. California and some 13 other jurisdictions rely on code-based HIV data, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has refused to certify for use in CARE Act allocations.
“APLA acknowledges and appreciates the enormous amount of time and hard work that the Administration, House and Senate Republicans and Democrats and HIV/AIDS advocates have spent on reauthorization over the past two years,” Thompson said.
“We now look forward to working together with the Administration and Congress to work through this interim phase and craft a CARE Act that will pass both the House and Senate,” Thompson said. “A compromise must guarantee that we have enough money to wage a no holds barred nationwide fight against the AIDS epidemic.
“APLA has already endorsed a temporary year-long reauthorization sponsored by New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg,” Thompson said. “The Lautenberg measure would give all parties time to regroup and reflect. It will also give us time to get accurate data projections on the full impact of any changes on every city and state. We must have a CARE Act. The legislation may be on hold, but the epidemic can’t wait.”
CARE Act reauthorization passed the U. S. House of Representatives but failed Friday when four senators from New York and New Jersey maintained “holds” on the bill, preventing the Senate from adopting the bill through unanimous consent.
Republicans had revised CARE Act formulas to shift funding from large states, such as California, New York and New Jersey with older established and continuing AIDS epidemics, to smaller, often rural states in the South with newer emerging epidemics.
California Senator Barbara Boxer lifted a similar hold on the bill, only after negotiating with Republicans to protect California from sudden steep losses predicted at the end of the five-year reauthorization period.
“All the senators involved acted honorably and in the best interests of people living with HIV/AIDS in their respective states,” Thompson said. “APLA supported their positions and respects their resolve.
“APLA looks forward to working with all parties on a good-faith agreement to resolve these difficult funding issues until we have a new bill,” Thompson said. “No one wants to see health care systems fail because we couldn’t agree on a bill, and no one wants to punish people living with HIV/AIDS because of a stalled political process.”
CARE Act negotiations could resume when Congress reconvenes for a lame duck session on November 9.
“We need to acknowledge what we have learned from this process,” Thompson said. “First, we certainly know that we have enough money to fully fund the CARE Act. It would take federal budget dust to solve all the funding issues. We also need to acknowledge disparities in CARE Act funding. But they cannot be solved by pitting one region of the country against another, or setting cities against states.
“The nation has a growing AIDS epidemic to fight,” Thompson said. “We need to find the money to get the job done in every city and every state in the country.”
Los Angeles County has the second largest AIDS epidemic in the country, after New York City, with an estimated 57,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. In 2006, Los Angeles received approximately $34 million in CARE Act funding, a five percent cut from the previous year. CARE Act funding nationwide has been essentially flat-funded for the past five years, resulting in a 25 percent reduction in real dollar terms.
AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), 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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