2.3.04 - AIDS Advocates Dismayed at Bush Administration

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) expressed deep disappointment today that the Bush Administration's proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget has flat-funded virtually all HIV/AIDS care, prevention and housing programs despite ongoing increases in HIV infections and AIDS cases in the U.S. For four years running, the Administration has flat-funded virtually all domestic HIV/AIDS programs. The lone increase proposed for the Ryan White CARE Act is a $35 million boost for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (bringing the total ADAP budget to $783 million). Unfortunately, this meager increase is nearly $300 million less than California and other states need to avoid joining 15 other states that already have waiting lists, dangerous enrollment caps and other cutbacks in drug access for people with HIV/AIDS. The only other increase for domestic AIDS programs was a very small $3 million in additional funding for the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative (MAI).

While SFAF has worked productively with the Administration on some HIV-related issues, we are deeply disheartened by the lack of funding support for the growing needs of people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. "In large measure, domestic AIDS programs have been starved for funding for four years by this Administration--only exacerbating the public health impact of funding shortfalls facing states and localities," said Ernest Hopkins, SFAF's Director of Federal Affairs. "It is unconscionable that the Administration prioritized a $135 million increase for Abstinence-Only Sexual Education Programs, while desperately sick people with AIDS languish on waiting lists for life-saving drugs. The message is clear to low-income, uninsured people with HIV/AIDS: this Administration is not committed to protecting your access to healthcare and life-saving drugs."

The FY 2005 Bush Budget also flat funds the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) program at FY 2004 levels ($295 million), despite the national recession and associated joblessness that continues to force people with HIV/AIDS into unstable housing or homelessness. Affordable housing is a vital component of HIV care and inadequate housing undermines health outcomes for people with HIV/AIDS.

The Bush Administration's FY 2005 budget does include an increase for Global AIDS programs. However, the $2.8 billion proposed for FY 2005, while significant, falls short of the $3.5 billion in HIV/AIDS service and prevention funding needed this fiscal year in the developing world to truly tackle the HIV pandemic.