Increase Funding for AIDS Housing: Housing is key to treatment and prevention. Numerous studies have shown that having safe, stable housing is as important as medication for keeping people living with HIV healthy. In addition, people in stable housing are many times less likely to transmit the virus to other people. Because housing is so vital to treatment and prevention, it also saves money in the long run. Money spent on building housing for people with HIV and AIDS creates jobs and saves on expensive emergency care and new infections.

On the campaign trail, President Obama vowed to fight AIDS using the best available science. But his proposed budget has no new money for Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA). In Obama's proposed budget, AIDS housing does not even keep pace with inflation, or meet its anticipated demand for the year, let alone develop desperately needed new housing.

Congress now has the opportunity to do the right thing by increasing HOPWA's budget by the $50 million dollars, to $360 million.

Federally Fund Syringe Exchange Programs: Syringe exchange effectively reduces HIV and Hepatitis C transmission rates among intravenous drug users and others using injectables without access to clean needles (e.g. hormones, black-market pharmaceuticals). There is no evidence that it encourages illegal drug use, and in fact syringe exchange programs can be a first entry point for access to recovery and medical care. The medical and scientific community is largely in consensus that syringe exchange is a necessary part of HIV and Hep C prevention.

As recently as this winter, President Obama has said that he is strongly in favor of lifting the current ban on using federal funds for syringe exchanges. But he failed to remove the ban from the appropriations bill, citing that this is not the right time and place. But there is no other way to lift the ban besides removing the language banning federal funding. And if we do not do it now, that means tens of thousands more HIV and Hep C infections this year: as the administration tells us, every 9 and 1/2 minutes there's a new HIV infection in the United States.

Congress can do the right thing by removing the language banning federal funds from being spent on syringe exchange.

Increase Funding for Global AIDS: Since the US began a Global AIDS Initiative, funding has increased dramatically each year, so that the US commitment to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care worldwide by 2010 would be met. This has been done through 2 main mechanisms - The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Two years ago, the Global Fund's board of directors voted to triple funding for the Fund, but only if poor countries came forward with bigger and better grants. Last November, the Board voted on a round of funding that was three times the size of previous rounds. But wealthy countries did not keep their promise to increase funding, and now the Fund is facing a $5 billion funding shortfall and is cancelling entire founds of funding and cutting existing grants. This jeopardizes the progress made in fighting AIDS, TB, and malaria and could lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths. It's important that this funding does not come at the expense of bilateral (PEPFAR) programs, which also need an increase of at least $1 billion in 2010.

President Obama promised on the campaign trail to usher in a new era of multilateralism, and heralded the Fund as a key investment. But his 2010 budget did not reflect this, since he did not request any new money for the Global Fund. In fact, after all the spending bills for 2009 are added up, $1 billion will be contributed to the Fund, but Obama's budget only includes $900 million for 2010!

Congress needs to increase funding for the Global Fund to the US fair share to avoid cuts to grants - $2.7 billion.

While we are focused on the 2010 budget, another important battle is happening in Washington around health care reform. Advocates are working hard to make sure that any final reform bill expands health care for low-income people with HIV/AIDS. Go to www.taepusa.org for more information and action alerts.