Washington, DC – The AIDS Institute applauds the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate for passing this week the “Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009.” The bill will extend for four years the Ryan White Program, which provides lifesaving and life-extending health care, medications and support services to over 530,000 low-income people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. The bill passed the House floor today on a vote of 408 to 9. On Monday, the Senate passed the same bill by unanimous consent, and it is now ready for signature by President Obama.

“We congratulate House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) and ranking member Joe Barton (R-TX), together with Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) and ranking member Mike Enzi (R-WY) and their colleagues for crafting a bill in a bipartisan and bicameral fashion that quickly passed the Congress and can be signed by the President,” commented Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. This is extremely important since the current program sunset on September 30th; although the FY09 Appropriations Continuing Resolution allows it to operate temporarily until the end of October.

The bill passed by the Congress reflects many of the recommendations advanced by the HIV/AIDS community, who worked cooperatively over the past year in developing improvements to the current law, which was last amended in 2006. The bill, crafted by the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees, represents a series of compromises. “While The AIDS Institute strongly supports most aspects of the bill there are some elements that we would have liked to be different in the end,” added Schmid. “We realize the bill was the result of a long negotiation process and numerous interests had to be balanced.”

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program was originally authored in 1990 and reauthorized three times since, always with strong bipartisan support. Hundreds of thousands of people are alive today due to the Ryan White Program.

“The AIDS Institute recognizes that extending the authorization of the Ryan White Program is only the first step in providing the necessary care, treatment and support services for people with HIV/AIDS. We now must work with the Administration and the Congress to properly fund the program,” commented Michael Ruppal, Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. “With state and local budget cuts, people losing their health insurance due to the economic downturn, and expanded testing programs, additional federal resources will be a necessity. For the next fiscal year, the House is proposing an increase of $54 million to the Ryan White Program, or just 2.2 percent, while the Senate is proposing an increase of $35 million, or just 1.6 percent,” Ruppal concluded, “Now is not the time to provide minimal increases to vital programs that save lives, improve health outcomes and decrease long-term costs.”