Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - October 1, 2009
Drew Joseph, Hearst Washington Bureau
A Senate committee unanimously voted on Wednesday to extend for four years the funding provided under the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990, but the extension does not include a provision that would help restore funding for San Francisco, aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said.
The city has been losing funding since the 2006 reauthorization of the act as an increase in the number of AIDS cases in rural areas and among women has shifted the allocation of funding away from cities such as San Francisco. Pelosi has been able to mitigate the losses through a separate appropriations process, and last year squeezed out $7 million in extra funding for San Francisco.
If the provision that she supports becomes part of this year's Ryan White funding legislation, it would provide a permanent fix, her aides said. Opponents of the provision, including Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, argue that the provision is just an earmark for San Francisco, but Pelosi's aides denied that the city is receiving special treatment.
Pelosi is trying to increase funding across the country in addition to her district, they said.
Congress must approve reauthorization of the act by Oct. 31 to avoid disruption to HIV/AIDS funding.
The legislation, called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, currently contains a three-year period for states, including California, to switch from a code-based record system of people infected with HIV/AIDS to a name-based record system, a process with a number of steps that can take some time, according to Ernest Hopkins, director of federal affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to build a national registry of HIV/AIDS patients once the name-based system is finished.
The new funding continues the effort started with the $2.1 billion 2006 renewal of the act that "balances the needs of high prevalent cities and states with those experiencing rapidly growing epidemics," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chair of the health committee.
Greater funding is also being given to areas with high HIV prevalence rates, not just AIDS prevalence rates, which was the previous practice.
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