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Congressional Leaders: Ensure Fair Distribution of Critical HIV/AIDS Funding (Sen. Mike Enzi)

by Wyo. GOP Sen. Mike Enzi - 12/03/07 5:08 PM ET

Sen. Mike Enzi is Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Earlier today I sent a letter to House and Senate leadership, urging them to uphold the bipartisan, bicameral funding agreement in the Ryan White CARE Act renewal passed last year, and ensure that additional funding not be eroded for 45 cities where HIV/AIDS is growing dramatically.

In D.C. and across the country, African Americans account for more AIDS diagnoses, people living with AIDS, and HIV-related deaths than any other racial or ethnic group in the U.S. The Ryan White reauthorization bill we passed last year ensured that HIV/AIDS patients could get treatment regardless of their race, their gender, or where they live. Yet Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrat Leadership have taken steps to undo that, and put lives at risk, in order to funnel even more money into San Francisco — a city that already receives funding for people who have died.

Recently, The Washington Post has printed a series of articles regarding a study of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington, D.C., which has taken the greatest toll on African Americans, particularly African American women. However, the Democrat proposal would take away $9.3 million from 45 underserved areas of the country, for the benefit of a few cities. The District of Columbia, which faces a rapidly growing epidemic, would lose $577,974, while San Francisco, where HIV is no longer an epidemic, would receive an additional $6.1 million.

Last year we updated the Ryan White program, which provides life-saving treatments to millions of Americans with HIV/AIDS, to reflect the changing face of HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately, Democrat leadership in the House of Representatives has worked to undo all of that good work in order to line the pockets of their home districts, at the expense of HIV/AIDS patients suffering across the country.

The House appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, H.R. 3043, included what Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) dubbed the “Pelosi fix,