Policy Updates: Hill Happenings and Administration Activities

Hill Happenings

Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations

On June 30, the House Appropriations Committee approved (32-24) the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) subcommittee spending bill for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023), teeing up a full House floor vote on the LHHS bill as part of a FY2023 spending minibus package. Although appropriators may not stick to the budgetary totals established by the current deeming resolution (H.R. 1151), the House spending minibus will serve as the starting point for appropriations negotiations in the absence of a bipartisan budget resolution.

The House Appropriations Committee approved the following key funding proposals:

CDC
- Division of HIV Prevention (DHP):
  - DHP Total: $1.047 billion (+$60 m)
  - HIV Prevention: $755.6 million (+$0)
  - EHE Initiative: $245 million (+$50 m)
  - School Health: $46.1 million (+$10 m)
- Viral Hepatitis: $54.5 million (+$13.5 m)
- Infectious Disease and Opioids Program: $43 million (+$25 m)
- STD Prevention: $179.3 million (+$15 m)
HRSA
- Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Total: $2.695 billion (+$200 m)
  - Part A: $691 million (+$20.5 m)
  - Part B (Care): $485.2 million (+$41.3 m)
- Ending the Epidemic Plan: $250 million (+$125 m)
- Health Centers: $5.9 billion (+$198 m)

Despite strong support for an increase to the Infectious Disease and Opioids Program, the LHHS bill text included language that would prohibit the use of federal dollars to purchase syringes or other cylindrical materials to smoke or inhale controlled substances, such as pipes or straws. Please refer to NASTAD’s appropriations chart for the full details on the spending bill. NASTAD will continue to monitor the appropriations process and advocate for the highest funding level on behalf of HIV and hepatitis programs. 

Administration Activities

President Biden Takes Executive Action to Protect LGBTQI+ Health

On June 15, President Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) on Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals (LGBTQI+). The EO directs a broad range of key federal agencies to take steps to protect the health and wellbeing of LGBTQI+ people, including bolstering access to comprehensive medical care. The EO comes on the heels of an uptick in discriminatory attacks on Trans people and LGBTQI+ healthcare in many states. The EO includes the following directives:

HHS is charged with releasing new sample policies for states on how to expand access to comprehensive health care for LGBTQI+ patients in light of discriminatory legislative attacks at the state level against LGBTQI+ people,
HHS is directed to take steps to address the barriers and exclusionary policies that LGBTQI+ individuals and families face in accessing quality, affordable, comprehensive health care, including mental health care, reproductive health care, and HIV prevention and treatment.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is tasked with launching a new Working Group on LGBTQI+ Homelessness and Housing Equity, which will lead new efforts to identify and address the barriers to housing faced by LGBTQI+ people, provide guidance and technical assistance to housing providers on serving LGBTQI+ individuals, and seek new funding opportunities for culturally appropriate services that address barriers to housing for LGBTQI+ individuals.
Establishes a new federal coordinating committee on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data which will lead efforts across agencies to identify opportunities to strengthen SOGI data collection, while safeguarding privacy protections and civil rights for LGBTQI+ individuals.

CDC Releases New EHE Materials

On June 28, CDC released a set of new resources for the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S (EHE) initiative. As part of the EHE initiative, CDC is featuring communities across the country that are mobilizing to end their local HIV epidemics in a digital storytelling project. These stories highlight smart innovation, share lessons learned from successful programs, and profile the community members leading HIV prevention efforts. This success story highlights how two providers in rural Kentucky used EHE funding to incorporate innovative telehealth models into existing HIV and other health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, CDC released new web-based infographics, a digital-first resource that provides a user-friendly summary of CDC’s HIV data organized by the EHE pillars: Diagnose, Treat, Prevent, and Respond. This data is used to track the nation’s progress toward ending the HIV epidemic.

CDC Awards EHE Funding to Support Transgender Status-Neutral Community-to-Clinic Models

On June 30, CDC announced that it awarded funding to four organizations under PS 22-2209 “Transgender Status-Neutral Community-to-Clinic Models to End the HIV Epidemic.” The funding will support the development of models for community-to-clinic, status-neutral HIV prevention and care services for transgender persons at healthcare organizations that provide comprehensive, co-located health services for transgender persons including HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), gender-affirming hormone therapy, STI testing and treatment, hepatitis testing and treatment, primary health care, chronic disease care, and navigation. Funded organizations will also participate in a national learning collaborative to share lessons learned and best practices.

Resources

CDC MMWR:

SAMHSA NOFO: State Opioid Response Grant Program

SAMHSA is announcing a State Opioid Response (SOR) grant funding opportunity that will provide nearly $1.5 billion to states and territories to help address the Nation’s opioid addiction and overdose epidemic. The SOR grant program provides formula funding to states and territories for increasing access to FDA-approved medications for the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), and for supporting prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services for OUD and other concurrent substance use disorders (SUD). Applications are due July 18.

Job Postings

Program Associate, Harm Reduction – AIDS United

AIDS United is seeking a Program Associate to provide administrative support and coordination to the organization’s Expanding Syringe Services Programs Capacity to Respond to COVID-19 initiative. This project supports syringe services programs to effectively respond to COVID-19 among people who use drugs with services including vaccination education, referral and linkage, and navigation services.

Program Content and Training Specialist, Supporting Harm Reduction Programs (SHaRP) – University of Washington

This position is part of a cooperative agreement award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide technical assistance about monitoring and evaluation to syringe services programs (SSPs) as part of the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Center. One of the primary projects of this award is to provide technical assistance (TA) to SSPs for monitoring and evaluation activities. The University of Washington is working in collaboration with the CDC, SAMHSA, NASTAD, the National Harm Reduction Coalition, and other TA partners to provide a suite of technical assistance support to individual programs. 

Social Innovations Team Lead – Baltimore, MD

Baltimore City Health Department is seeking to fill the position of the Social Innovations Team Lead for the Bureau of Clinical Services and HIV/STI Prevention. The HIV/STI Social Innovations Team is a unique and visionary program at Baltimore City Health Department that utilizes a human-centered design approach to engage with the Baltimore community on issues related to HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention.  The team creates innovative, original, and engaging programming to involve the community in the heart of the Health Department’s work. 

Director of Operations – Boston, MA

The Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences (BIDLS) at the Department of Public Health (DPH) is seeking an experienced leader who is eager to join a mission-driven and fast-paced team in effectively and efficiently supporting the day-to-day operational needs of BIDLS.  The selected candidate will provide direct and indirect supervision to a total of 55 staff, including 5 Managers, and will oversee an annual budget in excess of $500M. To be successful, the incumbent of this position must be detail-oriented and also must understand the complexities of systems change and implementation in government systems, with the ability to ensure alignment with the Bureau’s and Department’s mission, goals, and objectives.

Project Data Manager, Syringe Service Program – University of Washington

We are hiring for a Project Data Manager (Research Consultant) to work closely with the principal investigator, project coordinator, survey site staff, CDC personnel, and other support staff to enact all data-related components of Project NEXUS. This position will supervise the NEXUS data team, including two research assistants, lead data analysis, and be the main point of contact for the CDC data management team. They will also provide support for the Dave Purchase Memorial Survey and the National Harm Reduction TA Center as needed.

STD/HIV/Hepatitis Program, Louisiana Department of Health Office of Public Health

Wyoming Department of Health, Public Health Division, Communicable Disease Unit

Communicable Disease Unit Surveillance Program Manager – Cheyenne, Wyoming
- The Wyoming Department of Health, Public Health Division, Communicable Disease Unit is seeking a Communicable Disease Surveillance Program Manager for Cheyenne. This position will serve as the Communicable Disease (CD) Surveillance Program Manager and senior epidemiologist for the Communicable Disease Unit. This position oversees public health surveillance of four disease areas (HIV, STD, TB, and Viral Hepatitis).  This position will monitor disease trends and utilize surveillance data to coordinate public health activities.

Communicable Disease Epidemiologist – Cheyenne, Wyoming
- This position will serve as the Communicable Disease AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Coordinator, Wyoming TB Controller, and Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) for the Communicable Disease (CD) Treatment Program.  Assist in outbreak response to ensure the safety of Wyoming residents; by interviewing cases for exposure information, updating news outlets on the progress of outbreak control, and analyzing exposure data utilizing epidemiological and statistical methods.

Hepatitis Surveillance Data Analyst – New Orleans, Louisiana

This position is responsible for the data analysis activities for the Louisiana Office of Public Health STD/HIV/Hepatitis Program (SHHP), in the Hepatitis Surveillance unit. Data utilized for Hepatitis Surveillance activities include Hepatitis laboratory data, Case Report Forms, Provider Report Forms, Linkage to Cure data, investigation data, Medicaid data, and data from related sources and programs. This position will implement and coordinate data analysis activities to monitor and evaluate progress toward meeting hepatitis elimination within the state. All activities must be completed in accordance with the security and confidentiality guidelines required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and SHHP.

Assistant Commissioner - Health Department – Baltimore, Maryland

The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) is seeking an Assistant Commissioner to lead the Bureau of Communicable Disease and Outbreak Control. This senior management position will lead a talented team responsible for communicable disease investigation, outbreak control and emergency preparedness programming. The incumbent will also be responsible for developing and implementing agency-wide policies related to health department readiness to respond to public health emergencies. The incumbent will report directly to the Deputy Commissioner for BCHD’s Division of Population Health & Disease Prevention.  

Open Positions – New York State

The New York State Department of Health, in partnership with Health Research, Inc, has various job openings, including some within the AIDS Institute. Please visit this link to learn about their current opportunities.

News Bulletin

Biden administration ramps up monkeypox vaccination amid rising cases

“The Biden administration rolled out a strategy on Tuesday to expand vaccination against the monkeypox virus to a greater number of at-risk individuals, as cases of the rare disease continue to climb and outbreaks in major cities across the country worsen.

But city public health departments reported that demand for the vaccine is still outstripping supply, raising concerns that the administration will struggle to keep up.”

Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as Supreme Court justice

“Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, officially making her the nation’s first Black woman to serve in the role. She will fill the seat being vacated by the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, whose previously announced departure after nearly 28 years on the bench took effect Thursday at noon.”

HIV Testing Fell Steeply During the Early Pandemic

“National HIV testing rates dropped dramatically in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The decrease was especially sharp for CDC-funded tests, which fell by almost half. The data were released ahead of National HIV Testing Day (June 27), an observation dating back to 1995. This year’s theme is “HIV Testing is Self-care,” which is especially important two years into the pandemic.”