"Rather than a war on AIDS, we're seeing a war on AIDS programs, from White House smear campaigns on condom effectiveness, to massive underfunding of the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria, to multiple audits of U.S. community groups that are a lifeline for gay men and people of color at risk of HIV infection," says Jose de Marco of ACT UP Philadelphia. "As an African American gay man living with AIDS, I get the impression that Bush has two places for me to go Ð into the street with nothing, or into a hole in the ground."

"Almost a year ago, Bush's State of the Union address boasted of a massive initiative against global AIDS. But the President has pressured Congress to undercut even his original, limited initiative on global AIDS." added Paul Zeitz of Global AIDS Alliance. "We hope President Bush starts to back the new international concensus that much more is needed from the U.S. as its fair share."

"2003 will go down in history as the year that Americans died on waiting lists for AIDS medication that could have saved their lives while the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] imposed a program to deny HIV education to most Americans who do not have the virus," said Julie Davids of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). "Bush can try to hide at his ranch, but he can't hide from the truth: he is responsible for the deaths of people living with HIV, and for mis-educating a generation of youth in a time of rising HIV rates. And the truth will follow him throughout his re-election campaign.

The AIDS Year in Review report (available 11/24 at www.aidsinfonyc.org/yearinreview.html) reveals a comprehensive picture of a federal demobilization against HIV, including absolute and per-capita funding cuts, restrictions on prevention information and research, and outright contradictions between pledges of assistance and actual Administration actions, and will be released at the protest and online.

AIDS Community Mobilization for Republican and Democratic National Conventions: "President Bush is coming to my home this September to make a photo opportunity out of a tragedy, and to make his disaster of an Administration appear like heroes with lofty pronouncements on global AIDS, but he's going to be met by thousands of us who live every day with this virus in our bodies or our families." said Joe Bostic of the New York City AIDS Housing Network. "We're coming to his house on November 24th to expose the truth of his AIDS record, and we're going to keep on exposing it, right through the election, and demand that all of these candidates commit to what is really needed to overcome HIV Ð more resources, sound policies, and an end to attacks on the programs keeping people alive."

BACKGROUND ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND DOMESTIC/GLOBAL POLICIES

* President Bush has proposed three years of essentially flat-funding (or cuts) for the Ryan White CARE Act, while ignoring the huge burdens placed on the programs through growing caseloads and increasing costs of care.

* President Bush has chronically under-funded the AIDS Drug Assistance Program -- disregarding those dying on waiting lists for access to life-saving medications. Inadequate funding for HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS) has contributed to the dramatic increase in the number of homeless Americans.

* President Bush has proposed huge increases for unproven and potentially harmful abstinence-only sexuality education, while refusing funding increases for scientifically proven-effective HIV prevention programs.

* President Bush has pledged to use cost-effective generic drugs in an expanded U.S. response to global AIDS, and to increase the annual contribution to $3 billion. In fact, he continues to support trade policies that prohibit or delay access to generics in developing nations, and has explicitly opposed bipartisan efforts to allocate $3 billion in 2004 for global AIDS.

* From new CDC prevention policies that will gut community-based HIV prevention efforts to the "global gag rule" that strips funding assistance to family planning programs that even discuss abortion, the Bush Administration disinvestment in effective HIV/AIDS strategies will disproportionately affect women and people of color.

"This Administration works night and day to block U.S. funding for the Global Fund and access to life-saving generic medicines, while turning its back on 700 sick and dying people who can't get their AIDS drugs right here in the richest country in the world. If this is compassion, I'd hate to see indifference," said Asia Russell of Health GAP, "When you scratch the surface of Bush's rhetoric, it's just plain old Reaganomics underneath Ð strip money away from lifesaving programs, gut housing and health care, and leave poor people and people of color to die in cities across the country and villages around the world."

"Despite the challenges, we brought down HIV transmission in this country through a wide range of innovative community programs. And the President knows you can't do more HIV prevention without more money," added Jen Cohn of the American Medical Student Association. "But instead of more support to deal with troubling increases in rates in some communities, those on the front lines are getting audits, threats, and now a virtual promise of defunding from CDC."

The Year in Review will provide additional information on:

Impact of FTAA on access to treatment in poor nations: A comprehensive analysis of this week's conclusion of controversial trade agreement for the hemisphere that will have sweeping implications for AIDS treatment access.

HIV/AIDS Prevention: Administration officials have announced a plan to reduce by half the number of new HIV infections by 2005 with no concomitant funding increase for comprehensive HIV prevention programs, say the activists. Experts estimate this effort would cost $383 million in new money annually, but the new CDC "Advancing HIV Prevention" program will decimate effective existing efforts that disproportionately affect African American and Latino/a Americans. Unproven and misleading "abstinence only" programs are the only interventions slated for funding increases.

Audits and Threats: Organizations that have been critical of the Administration's prevention policies, as well as those that serve sexually active gay men, have been the targets of many "punitive audits" by the Administration. Activists point out that while these organizations have passed these audits, "abstinence only" programs have not been audited, despite at least in one case being found guilty of violating federal spending rules.

Americans without AIDS therapies, and delays and obstructions in the global AIDS fight: In many states, life saving programs like the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) have reduced services, put sick people on waiting lists, and refused coverage of important new medicines because of lack of funds. At least four HIV+ people from West Virginia and Kentucky have died on ADAP waiting lists. Advocates are demanding $215 million in new money for ADAP to close the funding gap.

Contact:
Dan Murphy, ACT UP Philadelphia 215-731-1844, burgercraftx@hotmail.com
David Bryden, Global AIDS Alliance 202-296-0260 ext 211, dbryden@globalaidsalliance.org
Julie Davids, CHAMP 646-431-7525, jdavids@critpath.org

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