BUSH BUDGET IGNORES NEEDS OF PEOPLE WITH HIV/AIDS

HIV Prevention Cut, Abstinence-Only Funding Increased in Misguided Proposal

Los Angeles, Calif., February 8, 2008 – AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) today called on Congress to reject President Bush's 2009 budget proposal for HIV/AIDS, which cuts domestic care and treatment programs, flat funds prevention and includes another unwarranted increase for abstinence-only sex education programs that have been proven ineffective at controlling rates of unprotected sex.

"This budget ignores the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS," said APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. "The president has talked a good game about the need to fight the spread of AIDS, especially in minority communities, but this budget makes all the talk sound like empty promises."

The president's 2009 proposed budget includes an inadequate $1 million increase for the entire $2.1 billion Ryan White CARE Act. It cuts CARE Act funding to cities, including Los Angeles, where significant minority populations live. It cuts a million dollars from the CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) prevention education programs, just as the CDC is reportedly about to announce significant increases in the number of new HIV infections each year. And the president asks for a $28 million increase in abstinence-only prevention education programs, which research studies recently confirmed just don't work.

"We do not need more funding for bogus abstinence programs that have been proven ineffective," Thompson said. "What we need is the political will and the funding to fight an epidemic that is ravaging the African American community and other marginalized groups."

The proposed budget would also cut overall funding at the Department of Health and Human Services by over $2 billion; freeze funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at $29.3 billion, which supports a broad range of HIV/AIDS research; flat fund HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA); and cut $200 billion to reduce Medicare and Medicaid over the next five years.

Overall, the president's budget for the CDC in FY 2009 is $5.976 billion. This represents a cut of $476 million from FY 2008. HIV/AIDS prevention and testing funding is flat in the president's 2009 budget. However, the budget proposes to divert $40 million from HIV/AIDS prevention ($24 million from national programs and $16 million from state and local prevention) to other activities: $10 million for rapid testing and $30 million to early diagnosis testing.

"The CDC is about to announce a substantial increase in new HIV infections each year," Thompson said. "We need more money to expand testing, but we also need more prevention funding so we won't be seeing more and more positive HIV tests every year.

"This is a shameful budget," Thompson concluded. "Congress should find a way to fund these programs until we have a new administration that understands the health care needs of all Americans, including those living with HIV/AIDS."

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. Marking 25 years of service in 2008, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.