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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2003)
news PHOTO BY BO S A IDS Watch 2003 is about deliv ering the message to Congress that “these are real people using real programs.” Increased fund ing is crucial to keeping people alive, said Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS, which helped organize the event held from May 18 to 20 in Washington, D.C. The opening day was filled with briefing and training sessions, the next two with visits to members of Congress. Anderson said the presence of more than 400 advocates was “an incredibly powerful statement of your commit ment to these issues” in light of the financial difficulties that many organizations are facing. “Tax cuts have direct implications on how much money is going to he available for HIV/AIDS programs,” explained Laura Hanen, National Alliance of State and Territorial A ID S Directors government relations director. She saw the smaller $350 billion package pro posed by the Senate as better than the House version, which was more than twice as large. Ernest Hopkins, a lobbyist for the San Fran cisco A ID S Foundation, was pleased with the recent “thoughtful dialogue” in both chambers in passing an international A ID S hill. “Your job is to bring it hack to talking about what is happening in your local community,” he said. "You need to focus on why these programs are important to you at hom e...don’t focus on the large numbers” in the total appropriation. “You can’t take the support of Democrats for granted,” one audience member cautioned. That person believed they “rolled over” on recent votes and supported abstinence-based prevention programs. Hopkins told how one constituent recently E yes on the H ill AIDS Watch 2003 aims to send a message to a reluctant Congress by B ob R oeh r took a representative to task for becoming quiet and not as visible in the media on AIDS issues as she had been in the past. The con gresswoman was shocked to hear the evalua tion, he said, and “really got it.” One of the greatest political accomplish ments has been to make A ID S a bipartisan issue. Hopkins urged advocates to continue framing their efforts within that context. “ Don’t let members of either party off the hook; none of them are doing enough on the domes tic front. Make it a leadership issue. They get the devastation of the disease [from the inter national discussion]; now bring it back home.” “Housing equals health,” said A ID S Alaba ma C EO Kathie Hiers, offering a short briefing on the Housing Opportunities for Persons with A ID S program. A recent survey of the home less in Birmingham found that 15 percent knew they were infected with HIV. “How can people adhere to a difficult medical therapy without a roof over their head?” she asked. Ross Baker of Lifelong AIDS Alliance in Seattle demonstrated a “prevention works dance” as an animated aid to remembering the major messages in lobbying: Prevention is cost-effec tive; say “no” to abstinence-only programs; more money for vaccine research and needle exchange; and people of color are affected disproportionate ly. He closed by forming his arms into a big “C ,” which stands for condoms, community-based P avid W. O wens programs and the Cen ters for Disease Control and Prevention. Hopkins reviewed the Ryan White Com prehensive A ID S Re sources Emergency Act programs. “We need significant increases for Ernest Hopkins and Laura Hanen brief advocates during A ID S Watch all of them," he said. 2003 last month in Washington, D .C . According to Hop Diseases to purchase $233 million of anthrax kins, the largest increase should he for the vaccine appear to have been derailed. U.S. Sens. A ID S Drug Assistance Program, where an Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, additional $280 million is needed. Some 14 wrote a joint letter expressing their displeasure states already have imposed restrictions on with the proposal, and it appears to have worked. access to ADAP, and more are likely to follow. That money would have come out of current “This is about people’s access to life-and-death appropriations for research grants. The institute services,” Hopkins said. funds the greatest portion of HIV research grants Robert Greenwald said people often take Medicaid for granted because it’s an entitle by the National Institutes of Health. Anderson urged the audience members to ment program and not AIDS-specific; howev “stay on message and not get sucked into minutia” er, “it is an increasingly important part of the when visiting with members of Congress and their HIV health care delivery system.” He criticized the Bush administration proposal to “reform” staffs. “We don’t want Congress writing the rules; when they do, we get abstinence-only” preven the program by capping expenditures, calling it tion programs, he said. “We want them to write essentially a gutting of Medicaid. “The way to solve the budget crisis is not on the backs of the check, and then we will work with the experts to make sure the check gets spent well.” JF1 poor people who need health care.” One piece of good news to come out of the B ob ROEHR is a free-lance reporter based in briefing was that White House efforts to force Washington, D .C . the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious ‘R emember when music was P.C. & A S S O C I A T E S s<fmng the community since 1975 A tt o r n ey s a t L aw David W. 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