Welcome Back (to Work)!

Funny, on the surface the mood in Washington seems a bit more lighthearted as Congress comes back from its recess, the tense threats of the debt ceiling debate moves into the past and Washingtonians return from vacations or other summer breaks. Not us!  AIDS United is on high alert as Members of Congress have returned to the capital. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has convened its first meeting and members begin discussing possible cuts to programs that fund HIV/AIDS-related programs, including Ryan White, Centers for Disease Control programs, research, and possible cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and low-income safety net programs. On top of that, the appropriations process allocating money for fiscal year 2012 is in full swing and the President in his speech to a joint session of Congress announced a jobs bill estimated to cost $447 billion.  And the 2012 election cycle is already in high gear. 

In this issue we are trading in our August swimsuits for business suits and it’s back to work!  In fact we are excited to announce AIDS United’s participation in a White House roundtable discussion on public and private investment to advance the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. We will also catch you up to speed on what is happening in Congress and the Joint Select Committee (aka the super committee), the Affordable Care Act, and the Ryan White Care Act.

Please also take advantage of the resources provided throughout this Policy Update to become more familiar with the “super committee.” Very soon we will need to defend the programs that matter most to people living with HIV, and our defense will be much stronger if we are informed, inspired, and united.

Welcome back!  (And don’t worry, our swimsuit and sandal pictures shall not be leaked – even as a trial balloon).

Bill McColl, Political Director

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AIDS United Mobilizes Private Sector Investment to Advance National HIV/AIDS Strategy

WASHINGTON, D.C.  September 9, 2011  – Today at a White House roundtable discussion,  Mobilizing Public and Private Sector Investments to Support the Goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, AIDS United and its Access to Care funding partners shared the successes of their groundbreaking partnership. AIDS United and their partners also urged other private sector leaders to make significant investments in advancing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy  (NHAS) and ending HIV/AIDS in the United States. 

“It is only through a unified response to HIV/AIDS that we will be able to end the epidemic in America,” said Mark Ishaug, President and CEO of AIDS United.  “Today’s gathering of public and private sector leaders was energizing and inspiring, and gives us hope that other investors will join with us in this important work.”

Read more about this important work.

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They're Back: Congress Returns

Appropriations on the Horizon
September marks the beginning of the rush by Congress to complete the appropriations process for the new fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 (FY 2012).  The normal process calls for each chamber to pass and the President to sign 12 separate appropriation bills.  The House is further along in its process.  The full House has passed six appropriation bills and three more have been cleared by the Appropriations Committee.  Two additional bills have been cleared at the sub-committee level with the Transportation/HUD bill being approved by the sub-committee earlier this week.  That bill includes funding for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program.  The mammoth Labor/Health and Human Services (HHS)/Education bill is the remaining bill.  The Labor/HHS bill funds the bulk of domestic HIV-related programs, including the Ryan White Program, the CDC’s prevention programs, and research at NIH.

The biggest factor affecting the remaining process to complete FY ’12 appropriations is the recently enacted Budget Control Act.  The new law caps non-discretionary spending at $1.043 trillion.  That amount is below the level of spending for FY ’11 but is higher than the total spending level that the House has been using to craft its appropriation bills.  The Senate, which has passed only one of its 12 bills (the Military Construction/Veterans Affairs bill), opted to wait until a debt ceiling increase and deficit reduction agreement were completed.  The Senate leadership has agreed to use the spending cap called for in the BCA to craft its bills.  Earlier this week the Senate Appropriations Committee released the individual funding levels for the 12 spending bills (known as 302(b) allocations).  The allocation for the Senate’s Labor/HHS bill is “only” $300 million below the current, FY ’11 level.  This provides a glimmer of hope for funding for HIV/AIDS in the Labor/HHS bill.

There is no agreement in the House to use the $1.043 trillion total spending allowed under the BCA.  House Members who align with the Tea Party want to stick with the more draconian spending levels that the House has been using for its FY ’12 bills.  This is reportedly one reason that the House Labor/HHS sub-committee postponed a mark-up of its spending bill that had been scheduled for earlier this week.

There is no chance that these differences will be resolved by Oct. 1.  To keep the government funded Congress must pass a Continuing Resolution (CR).  The House leadership has started a CR that they expect to bring to the floor the week of September 19.  It is not clear whether this will be a clean bill that continues funding at current levels or it will include new spending cuts. We will keep you informed and engaged as the process develops.

Joint Committee Convenes First Hearing
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction met for the first time on Thursday, September 8. The Committee, which has become popularly known as the “super committee,” has the simple order of coming up with a way to shrink the deficit by $1.2-$1.5 trillion by Thanksgiving. However, they also have the unenviable responsibility of creating a plan that will not only achieve such a reduction, but perhaps even more Herculean, will be able to pass both chambers of Congress. If the panel is unable to reach an agreement by the November deadline or Congress does not pass the plan, up to $1.2 trillion in cuts will be divided equally between defense and non-defense cuts (with some exemptions).The meeting on Thursday was extraordinarily transparent, as it was open to the public and televised live on C-SPAN.
 
In opening remarks, co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, cited Medicare and Medicaid as the main contributors to a deficit that has ballooned in recent years while Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, the other co-chair, called for the committee to work towards a bipartisan solution to the deficit problem. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, urged the committee to consider revenues as one method of tackling the deficit, in what is sure to be a contentious issue throughout the meetings. Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, talked about going beyond the minimum $1.2 trillion in cuts in order to form a more sustainable and comprehensive approach to deficit reduction.

The next hearing will be September 13. AIDS United will keep you abreast of the committee's developments as discussions will surely include programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, which are indispensible to people living with HIV.

President Unveils Jobs Plan
Yesterday, September 8, President Obama, in front of a joint session of Congress, released a proposal titled the "American Jobs Act" that the White House hopes will help to spur an economy that has stagnated in recent months. The proposal is a $447 billion package that includes $240 million in tax incentives for small businesses and employers, an extension of jobless benefits for the unemployed, and $140 billion to save the jobs of state and local teachers and first responders and to repair deteriorating schools and rebuild roads, railways and airports.

Watch the President’s speech.

Learn more about  the American Jobs Act with the White House fact sheet.

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Appeals Court Makes Two Affordable Care Act Rulings

A three judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeals has ruled 3-0 that the State of Virginia lacks standing to sue the federal government over the individual mandate provision contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).  The individual mandate requires nearly all individuals to purchase adequate health insurance coverage.  The court, in an opinion by Judge Diana Motz, states that Virginia will not be harmed by the provision and therefore lacks standing to sue since it is not an individual.  The Virginia Health Care Freedom Act (VHCFA) was previously enacted by Virginia and states that “[n]o resident of this Commonwealth . . . shall be required to obtain or maintain a policy of individual insurance coverage.”  Virginia’s governor signed the law the day after President Obama signed the PPACA.  The court ruled that the new state law “simply purports to immunize Virginia citizens from federal law,” and that “Virginia lacks the sovereign authority to nullify federal law.” 

In a second opinion by Judge Motz, the court also dismissed a suit brought against the PPACA by Liberty University, a conservative university founded by Jerry Falwell. That lawsuit also challenged the individual mandate, focusing particularly on provisions to add an IRS fine for individual taxpayers who fail to purchase health insurance and a separate penalty, called an “assessable payment,” imposed on large employers that have at least one employee receiving subsidies to purchase health coverage.  The suit was dismissed as two of the three judges concluded that the Anti-Injunction Act keeps the court from ruling on the constitutionality of the penalty prior to it actually being imposed.  It’s also important that two of the judges state that the mandates on individuals and employers are in fact taxes.  That ruling seriously undercuts a key argument in opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

The decisions have the potential to be appealed to the full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, although the Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, has said he intends to skip that step and appeal the Virginia case directly to the Supreme Court.  It is not clear what Liberty University or the individuals in that case will choose to do.  However, it is clear that ultimately these questions will be resolved by the Supreme Court either in this case or a case from another jurisdiction.

Commonwealth of Virginia v. Kathleen Sebelius

Liberty University v. Timothy Geithner

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Announcements

National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation Dialogues
To maintain the community-driven momentum of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Office of National AIDS Policy will convene a series of regional dialogues to focus attention on issues related to implementation of the Strategy.  These dialogues will serve as a forum for federal and state agency representatives, researchers, clinicians, the HIV community, and leaders from business, philanthropy, faith and media sectors to share their diverse expertise, and collaborative experience.

The dialogues begin September 27 in Birmingham, Alabama. See the schedule of all the dialogues by clicking here.

AIDS United Hiring Regional Field Organizers
AIDS United seeks three Regional Field Organizers to work with its grantees, partners, and allies to implement a coordinated national organizing strategy. The Regional Field Organizer will  help mobilize grassroots state and federal HIV/AIDS-related advocacy to achieve the National HIV/AIDS Strategy goals.  Regional Field Organizers will be located in Texas, Washington DC, and the Southeast U.S.

Learn more about the Regional Field Organizer position.

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day – September 18
The National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAAD) focuses on the challenging issues facing the aging population with regards to HIV prevention, testing, care and treatment. In addition, there is an increased need for prevention, research, and data targeting the aging population, medical understanding of the aging process and its impact on HIV/AIDS.

Visit the National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day page for posters, a fact sheet, a planning guide and more.

Register your NHAAAD events here.

Learn more about HIV and aging here.

National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – September 27

The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) is the lead organizer for this day which started in 2008. Click here for more information about this day.

Read about a CDC study of HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men in 21 of the nation’s major cities.

Blogs: Read this NGMHAAD post by Stephen Bailous (NAPWA) and find out what NCHHSTP’s Director Dr. Fenton says about HIV in the City and the awareness day.

C-SPAN Launches Special Joint Committee Resource
The compromise debt ceiling law (The Budget Control Act of 2011) creates a special joint committee (sometimes called the “super committee”) with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, from spending cuts or tax revenue.

C-SPAN has created a comprehensive resource for people to learn about everything that is the Super Committee. The site includes committee member bios, videos, streaming of member comments on social media sites, and links to committee stories and other resources.

New State-Specific Resources for Super Committee Advocacy
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has new state-specific resources for super committee advocacy. The fifty state-specific fact sheets can help advocates make the case for why any plan for deficit reduction must protect programs vital to the well-being of women and families; make millionaires and corporations pay their fair share; and promote job growth, ensuring lower deficits and a stronger economy in the long term.

Click here to check out the fact sheets

The NWLC also recently updated its state-specific factsheets on the importance of Social Security to women and families in each state.

What the FOA is going on?!?!
The HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) will host a webinar on CDC’s funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for HIV prevention programs in health departments. The panel will include representatives from CDC, state and regional organizations and prevention providers.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, September 21 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. ET.

Register for the webinar

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