This week, hundreds of AIDS activists took part in the annual AIDSWatch lobbying effort, visiting Washington to talk with members of Congress to discuss HIV/AIDS issues and funding priorities.

One measure bringing advocates together is the Early Treatment for HIV/AIDS Act. ETHA would empower states to offer Medicaid treatment to low-income people with HIV before they advance to AIDS.

If enacted, ETHA "could reduce the death rate of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States by 50 percent," said Robert Greenwald, director of the Treatment Access Expansion Project. Most members of Congress do not know that about half of US HIV patients do not have health care access, he said. The Ryan White CARE Act provides 17 percent of treatment funding; Medicaid provides 51 percent; and Medicare provides 26 percent, he said.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) are sponsoring ETHA. Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are lead sponsors in the upper chamber.

However great the need, the bottom line remains money -- or rather, the lack of money, said Greg Smiley, lobbyist for the American Academy of HIV Medicine. "You know things are bleak when the [National Institutes of Health], one of the most popular programs in Congress, is getting flat-funded," he said. "Some congressional staff aides have acknowledged that these programs have been starved for the last five years; we can't make all of that up in one year," he said.

Among those taking part were representatives from the National Association of People With AIDS, the Human Rights Campaign, and AIDS Action.

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