National AIDS Strategy’s taking a road trip… to see you!
***UPDATE***
Download this worksheet to help you prepare your town hall testimony!
If you live in Alabama, Washington or Pennsylvania, you're in luck! The White House Office of National AIDS Policy is going on a road trip, and they're coming to see you.
ONAP announced today that registration has opened for three upcoming dialogues on implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Details are below and you can read more and sign up here.
Birmingham: Incorporating Prevention and Care Research Into HIV Programs
Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time: 2:00 – 4:30 pm
Location: Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center, University of Alabama, B 1200 10th Ave. S. Birmingham, AL
Seattle: Building Capacity within the HIV Workforce so that it Delivers What We Need Today and Tomorrow
Date: Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 pm
Location: Swedish Medical Center, Glaser Auditorium, 747 Broadway, Seattle, WA
Philly: Sustaining the Community-Based Response to HIV
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011
Time: 3:00 – 5:30 pm (new time)
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Dhirubhai Ambani Auditorium, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
AIDS.gov: HHS consults community on funding to implement the Strategy
Many of you asked the $64,000 questions when the National HIV/AIDS Strategy was released: "How's it going to be funded?"
You asked, and President Obama responded. In the budget the President proposed for next federal fiscal year, the Administration asked Congress to set aside 1% of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) HIV funding for Strategy implementation.
In June 2011, HHS brought together community and government stakeholders recommendations how the implementation funding should be used. A top HHS official, Dr. Ron Valdisari, posted an extensive summary of the meeting over at AIDS.gov. Here's a snippet:
Proposed National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation Fund
By Ronald Valdiserri, M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Because the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) is a priority endeavor for the U.S. government, when the President released his Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) budget proposal in February of this year, he proposed a special fund to support the implementation of the Strategy. If approved, the FY12 Budget Proposal authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to transfer one percent of the department’s domestic HIV/AIDS spending to promote new, collaborative efforts in support of the goals of the NHAS. If approved in the Congressional appropriations process, this would establish a fund of approximately $60 million dollars that would be administered by the Assistant Secretary for Health whose office would work closely with HHS operating divisions, staff offices, and community partners to determine the most strategic ways to use these resources to move us closer toward achieving the goals of the NHAS.
[...]
Consultation on Possible Uses of NHAS Implementation Fund
To begin the process of seeking input, on June 21, 2011, HHS convened some 40 stakeholders (PDF 64KB) from inside and outside of government to discuss principles and priorities that should be considered in the event that these resources become available in FY12. Mr. Jeffrey Crowley, Director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), noted at the start of the meeting that the idea for an NHAS Implementation Fund grew out of requests from the community to ensure that resources are available to implement the Strategy.
White House Releases Operational Plans; Congressional Members Seek CBO Estimate of NHAS Cost, Savings
This week, the White House released detailed operational plans from federal departments charged with implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). Federal officials developed the plans in response to a White House memo released in July along with the NHAS instructing several federal agencies to describe the steps they will take to meet the goals and targets of the NHAS. Meanwhile, as a bitterly divided Congress debates a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for the remainder of the 2011 federal fiscal year and appropriations for the 2012 year (which starts October 1, 2011), two members of Congress are calling on the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate the total cost and savings of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) are circulating a dear-colleague letter in the House inviting members of Congress to join their letter to CBO requesting an official, unbiased estimate of the needed investments and corresponding savings of a fully implemented National HIV/AIDS Strategy. See their dear-colleague letter here. Community members are urged to call on their members of Congress to join the letter no later than Thursday, February 24, 2011.
“AIDS in America” Organizations Deliver Letter to President
The following is a letter delivered to President Obama from 18 national HIV/AIDS organizations encouraging the inclusion of four key elements in the final development of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
April 20, 2010
The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
Washington. D.C.
Dear Mr. President,
As leaders of national organizations that have come together under the “AIDS In America” umbrella, we thank you for your commitment to the development of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States and for the progress that has been made on its development. We understand that the federal interagency work group is expected soon to make its recommendations on the Strategy to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). As the White House reviews the recommendations of the interagency work group and crafts a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for addressing the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic, we would like to offer four key elements which we believe must be reflected in a Strategy for it to be successful.
White House Taking Comments on NHAS through Monday, November 23rd
The Office of National AIDS Policy website now shows that comments will be taken on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy through Monday, November 23rd.
Please take this opportunity to weigh in on one of the most important domestic policy discussions to take place in recent years.