Bush’s Budget Proposal Calls for 7% Increase in Overall HHS HIV/AIDS Spending
President Bush is expected to announce today that he will increase HHS' expenditures on AIDS by $688 million, or 7%, with a "particular emphasis on research to develop a vaccine and international efforts to combat [HIV and AIDS] in the world's poorest countries," the Washington Post reports. The HIV/AIDS provisions of Bush's $1.9 trillion fiscal year 2002 budget are expected to include the following:
- A $258 million, or 12%, increase in NIH funding for HIV/AIDS research, bringing the agency's total HIV/AIDS funding to $2.5 billion, which includes $357 million for HIV vaccine research.
- An 11% expansion of the global AIDS program at the CDC. The Post reports that this $12 million increase is "far less than the $200 million
expansion of international efforts through HHS and the State Department the Senate called for in the budget resolution it approved Friday."
- A 2% increase in the CDC's domestic AIDS program.
- An 1% increase for the federal minority HIV/AIDS program.
- No increase for the Ryan White CARE Act.
- A 7% increase in women's health programs, including an "extra $10.5 million for the Office on Women's Health within the HHS secretary's office." The proposal also calls for $25 million in women-specific HIV/AIDS programs (Goldstein, Washington Post, 4/8).
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