Federal Affairs

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is one of the nation's leading community voices on national HIV-related policy issues. Together with our local and national partners, the AIDS Foundation is actively involved in the annual federal budget and appropriations process to ensure adequate funding for medical care, drug treatments and support services through the Ryan White CARE Act, HIV prevention, AIDS research, and funding for HIV/AIDS housing services provided through the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) program.

Since 1998, our Public Policy Department has also worked in coalition to secure substantial new funding for the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, which seeks to reduce racial disparities in HIV-related health outcomes by strengthening the organizational infrastructure and service capacity of minority community-based organizations. The federal government currently provides nearly $400 million in targeted funding for the Initiative.

In 1995 and again in 2000, the Public Policy Department played a key leadership role within the Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief (CAEAR) Coalition to successfully reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act for five more years. The bill must again be reauthorized this year and the AIDS Foundation is playing a leadership role in this process. 

In recent years, the AIDS Foundation's Policy and Client Services Departments have worked extensively to help Medicare eligible people with HIV/AIDS understand and prepare for the new Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, Part D, as well as to advocate for federal and state governments to assure the fullest possible coverage, at no or low cost, for people entering this program. 

Other current federal priorities include increasing funding to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, supporting efforts to expand care and treatment access for people living with HIV through Medicaid expansion and advocating for appropriate funding and policy responses from the Bush Administration and Congress to the global AIDS pandemic.