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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s offered to support “a bill” that would provide $75 million in additional funding to address the current AIDS drug crisis.Speaker Pelosi’s offer comes on the heels of protests in San Francisco and Washington D.C. targeting the Speaker over her silence on the current crisis afflicting the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP)—a federally-funded, state-run program that provides lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications to low-income Americans. More than 3,400 individuals in nine states are currently on waiting lists to receive lifesaving AIDS medications through cash-strapped state ADAPs. The number of people on waiting lists has been growing by the hundreds each week, while Speaker Pelosi has remained silent. However, the Speaker responded to a request for comment from KTVU, a San Francisco television station that aired a news segment about the protest. In an accompanying article on its website (Protestors March for AIDS/HIV Medication Funding) KTVU states: “…the Speaker's office emailed a statement explaining that the money should not come from stimulus funds. Instead, the Speaker supports a separate bill that would give ADAP $75 million over the next year and a half.”
Speaker Pelosi’s offer to support $75 million over the next year and a half is a good start toward helping to address the ADAP crisis as well as the most urgent need: to get patients on medications and on the road to health.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org/.
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