Appropriations

In response to the release of the “skinny budget” released by the White House today, Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, issued the following statement: “While there are still many unknowns, what we do know is the budget the Trump administration proposed today contains massive cuts that will damage the future health of our country. On the positive side, it appears that most existing HIV care and treatment programs, including most components of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and its part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative, would remain intact. If true, this marks a reversal from the leaked draft budget which eliminated the EHE initiative. However, the budget completely ignores HIV prevention at CDC, which includes surveillance, testing, PrEP programs, and linkage to care. It is not known if it is zeroed out, cut, or moved to another part of HHS, as has previously been reported. The Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative is also not on the list of programs being eliminated, but since it is not a detailed budget this is not fully known. The cuts to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program would impact critical services such as dental reimbursements, training, and community-driven implementation research.”