January 13, 2006
PUSH IT REAL GOOD
PLUS! The return of the Ryan White Update...
So far, it seems apt to call this the winter of our discontent, at least regarding funding for programs relied upon by low-income folks with HIV/AIDS. When the House reconvenes on January 31, it will take up the spending-cut package, replete with harsh Medicaid provisions, that the Senate passed 51-50 before the holidays. Unless the minds of a few moderate Republicans can be changed before the House votes the next day, it's likely that the bill—which the House has already voted for save a few minor changes made in the Senate version—will go through.
Add to that the pre-holiday passage of a Labor-HELP bill that not only flat-funded the Ryan White CARE Act (RWCA) but shaved an additional 1 percent off it, and you're not looking at a cup that runneth over for FY2006. And let's not even mention the thorny funding and policy questions that remain to be answered in the CARE Act's upcoming reauthorization...
There's only one thing to do in such grim times, and that's to storm the Hill and fight like hell to keep things from getting worse. That's exactly what Housing Works and its allies will be doing the next few months. Read on for a look...
JANUARY
This Thursday (Jan 12), HW will participate in the National AIDS Housing Coalition Hill visits to push an FY2007 request of $424 million for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program, compared to this year's appropriation of $297 million.
Next Wednesday (Jan 18) in D.C., HW federal advocacy director Robert Cordero, legislative counsel Mike Kink, national field organizer Larry Bryant (just named one of 10 Black AIDS Warriors to Watch by POZ magazine) and New York City peer advocate Alandra Mitchell will be visiting the offices of such key New York State congressional delegation Republicans as Sherwood Boehlert, Vito Fossella, John Sweeney and Thomas Reynolds. The visits will also focus on New York Democratic Senators Charles Schumer (D) and Hillary Clinton (D) and Reps. Charles Rangel and Eliot Engel. (Bryant prepped for the visits last week by dropping off a copy of HW's 2005 annual report at all 31 offices of New York State's congressional delegation.)
That same day, representing the new group AIDS Action in Mississippi—with which HW has a new partnership—Jackson-based Robin Webb and Almetha Williams will meet with the entire six-member Mississippi congressional delegation, including Sen. Thad Cochran (R), who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee; Sen. Trent Lott (R); Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering (R), vice chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee; Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D) of the Congressional Black Caucus; Rep. Gene Taylor (D); and Rep. Roger Wicker (R).
On January 26-27, HW New York State advocates Mike Kink and Mark Hayes will represent Medicaid Matters New York on Medicaid advocacy Hill visits targeting New York Reps. John Sweeney (R), Vito Fossella (R), Sherwood Boehlert (R), Sue Kelly (D) and James Walsh (R).
FEBRUARY
On February 6, the president will be dropping his FY07 budget, which is expected to include a request for an additional $40 billion-plus in cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The AIDS Budget and Appropriations Coalition (ABAC) has already submitted to the Office of Management and Budget this letter and accompanying chart of its request for FY07 funding across the government's portfolio of HIV/AIDS-related programs.
On February 8, the HIV Medicaid/Medicare Working Group (comprising over 100 groups, including HW, a founding member) of the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership (FAPP) will hold its advocacy day in D.C. to provide a rapid response to whatever damage to those two key programs Bush unveils in his new budget. HW is working to include in the Hill visits people with HIV/AIDS from target states including Iowa, Mississippi and South Carolina. Last year at this time, when Bush included harsh Medicaid proposals in his FY06 budget, AIDS advocates like those in the Working Group were among the first to strike back, mobilizing an early congressional response, especially in the Senate. (In other words, the FY06 cuts just passed could have been worse if a big ole stink hadn't been made right from the get-go!)
The following day, February 9, the FAPP's Ryan White CARE Act Workgroup meets, followed by a complete FAPP meeting the next day.
Wow, what a busy winter for HIV/AIDS advocates!
CATCHING UP WITH RYAN
The latest word on the street is that the Ryan White CARE Act is expected to be reauthorized by late spring or early summer. So let's take a look at the advocacy efforts around reauthorization...
Next Thursday, January 19, reps from HW and AAIM, along with other local and national AIDS groups like the CAEAR Coalition and the Ryan White Legislative Group, will sit down before staffers of the Senate HELP Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee—the two bodies with jurisdiction over the Ryan White CARE Act—to provide public comment on the White House RWCA reauthorization principles released in July. (We'll provide their testimony in next week's Update.) Bryant and Mitchell will comment for HW, Webb and Williams will comment for AAIM and Cordero and San Francisco AIDS Foundation's Ernest Hopkins will comment for the CAEAR Coalition.
Then, on April 2-5, the CAEAR Coalition will meet in D.C. for its business meeting and advocacy days, with a focus on Ryan White FY2007 appropriations advocacy—not to mention (hopefully) a big final push for reauthorization!
In addition, the Ryan White Legislative Group (RWLG) has released this detailed document of recommendations for changing Ryan White funding. As a highlight, the RWLG recs call for a supplemental provision of $80 million for Title II to shore up funding scarcity in non-metropolitan areas.
On the New York State/City level, a coalition to advocate around reauthorization has also formed among such groups as the New York AIDS Coalition, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Housing Works, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the New York State AIDS Institute.
Priority #1 for this coalition is to clarify New York AIDS groups' position on Ryan White funding, with a central goal being to defend the Act's so-called "double counting" of people with HIV/AIDS from dense metropolitan areas—funding them once on the state level and once on the metropolitan level.
That position will be hard to defend because both the president and HHS have criticized it as unfair in their reauthorization recommendations (which Housing Works denounced upon their release last summer). Of course, a key goal of the NYS/C Ryan White group will be to engage the support for their recommendations of key upstate moderate Republican reps like Boehlert, Sweeney and Reynolds.
We'll keep you posted on new Ryan White developments as they happen...