Big-State Lawmakers Oppose Possible Money Loss Under HIV/AIDS Law

At Thursday's meeting of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, lawmakers from California, New York, and New Jersey denounced proposed changes to Ryan White CARE Act funding. The proposals are intended to more equitably distribute $2 billion per year in federal HIV funds, but in effect would shift funding from Western and Northeastern states to the South.

Some Ryan White funding formulas disproportionately help states with urban areas by double-counting AIDS patients in metropolitan and state figures, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators. A formula that accounts for AIDS deaths vastly benefits San Francisco, giving it an additional $7 million annually. The White House wants to stop both. But the federal Department of Health and Human Services' administrator of Health Resources and Services, Elizabeth Duke, could provide few details on that proposal.

"The money needs to follow the infection," said Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.), a member of the subcommittee, which is negotiating with the Senate Health Committee to find a compromise bill reauthorizing the Ryan White Act.

At the hearing, several California lawmakers were prepared to rebut the GAO findings of Ryan White funding imbalances, touting a report released this week by the Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief. That report found Ryan White funds more equitably distributed than GAO did.

"I think it's skewed," said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.). "Why are we picking on the larger cities? ... It seems to me that there's excellent funding for other states. The chairman's state is right in the middle here," she said, indicating Georgia, home state of Chairperson Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.). "It bothers me that we are allowing a system that counts deceased individuals," Deal said.

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