The Ryan White Program provides vital safety-net services for low-income, uninsured and under-insured people with HIV, and services thousands of people with HIV in the Chicago area and across Illinois.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the federal agency that operates the Ryan White Program, recently asked for comments on how the Ryan White program should be changed when the program is next reviewed by Congress.  The program is up for review in September 2013. AFC responded with the following comments.

Comments on the Reauthorization of the Ryan White Program.

On Friday, December 16, Congress sent President Obama the final fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill, which reinstates a prohibition on using federal funding to support syringe exchanges. We implore President Obama to condemn the federal funding ban in the strongest language possible and begin working immediately for its repeal.

“Reinstating the ban on federal syringe exchange funding is a terrible setback and a clear rejection of science and human rights,” said David Ernesto Munar, president/CEO of AIDS Foundation of Chicago. “The debate about needle exchanges was settled in 2009. Congress and the President are reversing a major public health gain at a time in the AIDS epidemic when we cannot afford to take steps backward.”

With just one year to go before the 19th International AIDS Conference takes place in Washington, D.C. in the final months of the U.S. Presidential election, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is pleased to announce the launch of CountdownAIDS2012.org.

CountdownAIDS2012.org is an open, public project for sharing information and mobilizing around the conference, known as AIDS 2012.

Twelve prominent HIV/AIDS advocacy groups -- the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, AIDS United, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, the HIV Medicine Association, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, the National Minority AIDS Council, Partners in Health, Project Inform, the Ryan White Medical Providers Coalition, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, the Treatment Access Expansion Project, and the Treatment Action Group -- call on President Obama and congressional leaders to consider the impact on vulnerable populations, including people living with HIV/AIDS, of deficit reduction plans requiring hundreds of billions in funding cuts for health care and human services.

By Keith R. Green, MSW

I recently spent some time on the Capitol Hill for the first time in my new position as director of federal affairs for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). With Congress in the midst of one of the most heated budget debates of my generation, and the health care safety net for our most disadvantaged citizens on the chopping block to balance the budget, I was in no way confused about the political climate (or rather storm) that I was walking into.