This week, Congress is maneuvering a federal budget deal that includes proposed cuts to important HIV/AIDS programs. We are finally close to a bipartisan budget deal, but the fight is not over yet.
We desperately need you to urge your members of Congress to restore cuts and maintain funding for vital HIV/AIDS programs and services. Along with restoring cuts, advocates are asking for action on a couple of key budget-related issues. Here’s what we are asking:
- Restore proposed cuts, including cuts to Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Special Projects of National Significance and the STD Prevention Program.
- Modernize the Housing Opportunities for Persons Living with AIDS (HOPWA) formula and increase funding for the HOPWA program to minimize loss of funds as a result of the revised formula.
- Include language to end the ban on the use of federal funds for syringe exchange programs (SEPs) and to maintain language that allows the use of local funds for SEPs in the District of Columbia (because it’s not a state it needs congressional approval).
- Increase funding for U.S. HIV programs.
- Asking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to defend a robust and well-funded HIV research range of work.
Here’s how you can take action!
- Tell Congress to protect and invest in the lives of Americans living with HIV now! Our friends at AIDS United have set up an action page where you can message and urge Congress to protect and increase HIV/AIDS funding, including restoring proposed cuts to the HIV/AIDS budget. Click here to make your voice heard!
- Join the #NoHIVcuts Week of Action: Today through Friday on social media! The AIDS Budget and Appropriations Coalition have created a social media toolkit to ensure there are #NoHIVcuts in the bipartisan budget. Use the sample Facebook and Twitter posts to send messages to Congress!
- Sign on your organization to a HOPWA community letter! Deadline: Tuesday, Nov. 17 by 3 p.m. ET. The National AIDS Housing Coalition is asking for organizations to sign on to a letter putting pressure on U.S. House and Senate Appropriations Committees to ensure the HOPWA formula is updated. Sign on by sending your organization’s name, city and state to: [email protected].
- HIV research funding remains at risk – Sign on now! Deadline: Monday, Nov. 23. The Federal AIDS Policy Partnership (FAPP) Research Working Group is sending a letter calling on NIH leadership to support and defend a robust HIV research budget as the government prioritizes funding. With 417 organizations signed on to the previous letter, the FAPP Research Working Group is asking for organizations to sign on to a new letter to NIH. Click here to sign the letter.
