As Congress struggles to resolve the ongoing budget standoff, advocates, and lawmakers, are expressing growing concern that key HIV and AIDS programs could face steep reductions.
The House-passed budget bill would slash more than $1.5 billion from domestic services for people living with or at risk of HIV, a cut far deeper than those proposed by President Trump or the Senate, according to The Hill.
In a statement to The Hill, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, condemned the plan as a “callous move,” noting that “people across the country rely on the testing, PrEP access, early diagnosis, and lifesaving treatment these resources provide.”
The measure targets over $1 billion in HIV prevention and research funding and threatens $525 million for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, a cornerstone of federal care efforts. Including reductions to global initiatives, total HIV-related cuts approach $2 billion, The Hill reports.
Advocates warn that such cuts could have life-threatening consequences. Actor Javier Muñoz, who lives with HIV and is affiliated with the #SaveHIVFunding campaign, told The Hill, “Anyone old enough to remember the start of the AIDS epidemic here in the U.S. remembers what government neglect produced. Hundreds of thousands died. An entire generation is gone.”
Jeremiah Johnson, executive director of PrEP4All, said the proposed reductions would “immediately translate into fewer HIV tests, more people being diagnosed late and presenting with opportunistic infections and dying.”
Democratic lawmakers attempted to block the cuts, but amendments failed along party lines. During markup, Rep. Robert Aderholt, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, said members had to make “tough choices,” but emphasized that the bill maintains “a significant investment in over $2 billion in funding of the Ryan White program.”
In contrast, the Senate’s version preserves full funding for major HIV programs, including Ryan White and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) initiative. Lawmakers in the upper chamber, including several Republicans, have described these programs as effective and essential.
“Protecting and sustaining current funding levels is a matter of life and death,” Muñoz said. “Cuts to HIV funding mean death. That is not an exaggeration.”
