ONAP Statement

FY2001 Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2000
Contact: (202) 456-2437

AIDS Czar Praises FY 2001 Budget Request
for AIDS Care, Prevention, and Research

WASHINGTON, DC – Saying that it is clear that this Administration remains committed to addressing HIV and AIDS in the U.S. and abroad, Sandra Thurman, Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, stated: “The Clinton/Gore Administration continues to meet the challenge both here and abroad head on. We must all remember that we are at the beginning and not the end of a relentless pandemic. The Administration’s Fiscal Year 2001 budget moves forward on several fronts including prevention, care and treatment (for both new treatments and an effective vaccine), and housing, as well as in our global battle against HIV/AIDS.”

Citing an 8 percent increase in Ryan White CARE funding, Ms. Thurman said, “this increase continues the progress we have made in bringing community-based care and treatment to individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. Working to ensure that those who cannot afford health care are able to receive it helps us meet our obligation to those in need. The Ryan White CARE Act is our nation’s premier AIDS program and a model for the world. This Administration remains committed not only to its increased funding but also to its swift reauthorization. This program has always received broad-based bipartisan support in Washington, and in States, cities and communities across the country – and I trust that cooperation and partnership will continue.”

Additional funding for AIDS-related research at the National Institutes of Health will “help continue our efforts to find effective treatments, search for a vaccine, and study behaviors which place people at risk for infection with HIV.” “Our commitment to research continues,” said Ms. Thurman.

Other highlights of the FY 2001 budget request as it relates to HIV/AIDS include:

• Funding for the Ryan White CARE Act, which helps cities and states care for those living with HIV and AIDS, is increased $125 million to $1,719.8 million (8% over last year and 472$ since 1993.
• HIV prevention funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is increased by $65 million to $795 million (9% over last year and 59% since FY 1993).
• AIDS research funding to the National Institutes of Health will go up by approximately $87 million to $2,111 million (4% over last year and 98% since FY 1993).
• Funding for substance abuse services targeting those at highest risk of HIV infection, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is increased by $6 million to $128 million (5% over last year and 132% since FY 1993)
• The Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA) Program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development request is $260 million, a $28.0 million increase (12% over last year and 132% since FY 1993).
• In support of Vice-President Al Gore’s historic presentation the United Nation’s Security Council in which he presented HIV/AIDS as a international security concern, an increase of $100 million is being requested to enhance the Administration’s efforts on global AIDS, including funding efforts through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, Department of Labor and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Ms. Thurman said she is eager to continue to work with Congress, and applauded the bipartisan support that HIV/AIDS funding has received in the past. Ms. Thurman said, “AIDS continues to be a very real, very human tragedy. Now, more than ever, we must enhance our efforts. With 40,000 Americans being infected every year – and almost half of them under the age of 25 and more than one-half from communities of color, we must do more. And because we are a global community and because the global battle against AIDS is a shared responsibility, we must do more. We owe it to ourselves, our children and our future.

ANALYSIS OF FY2001 BUDGET
SELECTED AIDS PROGRAMS

*Includes $274 in funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative which is detailed in the last two columns.

**Does not include $10 million in funding allocated each to the Departments of Labor and Defense, nor $54 million allocated to US Agency for International Development.

**Estimates based on overall increase in funding-specific allocations have not yet been finalized.

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