Policy Updates: Hill Happenings and Administration Activities
Hill Happenings
FY2025 Appropriations
Appropriators in both Congressional chambers are advancing markups of fiscal year 2025 (FY2025) spending bills this summer. On July 18, Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that the upper chamber will start to markup subcommittee bills after the July Fourth recess. On May 23, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) approved lower topline spending levels than the statutory spending caps negotiated during the bipartisan debt limit compromise, teeing up party-line disagreements over federal spending totals in FY2025 since the Senate and House spending bills must be reconciled in order to become law. Since then, the HAC has approved six of the 12 FY2025 subcommittee spending bills. The House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) bill is scheduled for a subcommittee markup on June 27 and a full appropriations committee markup on July 10.
NASTAD will continue to monitor the congressional appropriations process and advocate for the highest possible funding for HIV, hepatitis, and drug user health programs.
Administration Activities
NIAID Updates Style Guide to Remove Language that Stigmatizes PLWHIV
In May 2024, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Division of AIDS (DIADS) updated the NIAID HIV Language Guide to center person-first, inclusive, and respectful language that emphasizes humanity, highlights autonomy, and promotes the idea that someone’s health and health determinants are only facets of their full life and identity. The updates aim to eliminate the use of stigmatizing HIV terminology across NIH communications and grant and contract language. In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will host an informal meeting with members of the HIV community on June 28, 2024, at 1PM EST to hear perspectives on People-First Language and the Use of Appropriate Terminology.
ONDCP Hosts Second Roundtable with Naloxone Manufacturers
On June 4, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) convened a second roundtable with U.S. drug manufacturers that produce naloxone, an FDA-approved opioid overdose reversal medication. ONDCP officials reiterated the Biden-Harris Administration’s naloxone guiding principles, which center affordable naloxone access and public awareness of fentanyl. Additionally, the group of manufacturers announced that they are building capacity to produce an additional 25 million doses in 2025 to help saturate areas with high numbers and rates of opioid overdose.
Resources
“In September 2022, CDC funded Emory University and its partners, Building Healthy Online Communities (BHOC), OraSure Technologies, Signal Group, and NASTAD to expand a nationwide HIV self-test (HIVST) distribution program with a goal of distributing at least 1 million HIVSTs over 5 years… During March 14, 2023–March 13, 2024, a CDC-funded program delivered approximately 440,000 mailed HIV self-tests to U.S. residents, including those disproportionately affected by HIV, 24.1% of whom had never previously received testing; 1.9% reported receiving a positive HIV test result. Many sought additional clinical services shortly after receiving their HIVSTs.”
HRSA HAB Program Letter & Webinar: Expungement Services for People with HIV Who Have Had Legal System Involvement
Date: Wednesday, June 26 from 3-4pm ET
“HRSA HAB is pleased to release a new program letter that provides guidance regarding how Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) funds may be used to provide expungement services for people with HIV who have had legal system involvement. Please mark your calendars and join HRSA HAB for a special edition of the June HAB You Heard webinar on Wednesday, June 26, from 3:00-4:00 pm ET that will include additional details about the release of the HRSA HAB expungement program letter. This webinar is open to all RWHAP recipients, subrecipients, stakeholders, and federal staff. Click here to register.
HHS OASH Webinar: Mpox Update
Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2024, from 3:00-4:30 PM EST
The Office of the Assistant Secretary (OASH) of Health and Human Services invites you to a 90-minute meeting to discuss the current state of mpox in the United States, including a situational update on Clade 1 mpox virus and the U.S. preparedness and response. To ensure this workshop is as informative as possible, please send any questions you may have about mpox to Tevin.warren@hhs.gov no later than Monday, June 24, 2024.
HRSA HAB Webinar: Innovative HIV Care Strategies for Individuals Who Are Not In Care or Have a New HIV Diagnosis
Date: Thursday, June 27 from 2:00-3:30 pm ET
Join HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau for an exciting webinar featuring two groundbreaking interventions that are transforming HIV care: Linkage, Integration, Navigation, and Comprehensive Services (LINCS) and HIV Clinical Pharmacist Services. These initiatives address specific challenges faced by people with HIV and are revolutionizing our strategies for providing comprehensive care and support. The interventions include:
- Linkage, Integration, Navigation, and Comprehensive Services (LINCS) Navigation used three sources of data to identify people not in care: HIV surveillance data, healthcare provider referrals, and electronic health record (EHR) data. LINCS navigators then used disease intervention searching tools and EHR data to locate clients and connect them to an HIV care provider, following up with clients for 90 days to support engagement in care. LINCS participants were more likely to be retained in care and virally suppressed after the intervention.
- HIV Clinical Pharmacist Services shortens the time between referral to and engagement in care by allowing newly referred clients to see pharmacists in addition to other clinical providers for their initial appointment. In addition to significantly decreasing the time between referral and initial visit, clients who saw a pharmacist also experienced shortened time to antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and viral suppression compared to those who only saw non-pharmacist providers.
CE credit is available for individuals who attend the live webinar. To learn more about CE credits offered through the IHIP webinar series, visit: https://targethiv.org/page/integrating-hiv-innovative-practices-ihip-continuing-education-credits.
SAMHSA NOFOs:
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued two funding opportunities supported by the Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI). In one, SAMHSA is seeking applications for $5.7 million to support substance use prevention and treatment services that adopt a syndemic approach for racial and ethnic minority individuals at risk for or living with HIV. In the other, SAMHSA announced the availability of $2.6 million to expand the number of programs delivering integrated, primary care, behavioral health, infectious disease, and harm reduction services to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness using a portable clinical care approach.
- MAI Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Treatment Pilot Program
- SAMHSA anticipates awarding up to eight programs of up to $700,000 per year for up to five years. At least one award will be made to American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes, or tribal organizations pending sufficient application volume. Applications are due Friday, July 12, 2024.
- MAI: Integrated Behavioral Health and HIV Care for Unsheltered Populations Pilot Project
- A total of $2.6 million is available to support up to four programs with awards of up to $650,000 per year for up to three years. One award will be made to an applicant serving people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in a rural area, pending sufficient application volume. Applications are due July 8, 2024.
Job Opportunities
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.
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
‘A mixed bag’: Fifth Circuit rules on ACA preventive services legal case
“The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a decision in a major legal case that observers have said could fundamentally alter the preventive services provision in the Affordable Care Act. The plaintiffs, Braidwood Management, argued the preventive services provision, which private plans and Medicaid expansion programs are required to cover without cost-sharing, is unconstitutional…Its ruling upholds a lower court's decision declaring nationwide coverage through the Preventive Services Task Force under the ACA as unconstitutional, and said the plaintiffs in this case do not need to cover these preventive services through their health plans. The nationwide injunction imposed by the lower court was overturned, effectively keeping the provision temporarily intact for the majority of Americans.”
Americans With HIV Are Living Longer. Federal Spending Isn't Keeping Up.
“More than half of the people living with HIV in the United States are, like Reid, older than 50. Researchers estimate that 70% of people living with the virus will fall in that age range by 2030. Aging with HIV means an increased risk of other health problems, such as diabetes, depression, and heart disease, and a greater chance of developing these conditions at a younger age. Yet the U.S. healthcare system isn't prepared to handle the needs of the more than half a million people -- those already infected and those newly infected with HIV -- who are 50 or older, say HIV advocates, doctors, government officials, people living with HIV, and researchers. They worry that funding constraints, an increasingly dysfunctional Congress, holes in the social safety net, untrained providers, and workforce shortages leave people aging with HIV vulnerable to poorer health, which could undermine the larger fight against the virus.”
Gilead’s twice-yearly shot to prevent HIV succeeds in late-stage trial
“Gilead’s experimental twice-yearly medicine to prevent HIV was 100% effective in a late-stage trial, the company said Thursday. None of the roughly 2,000 women in the trial who received the lenacapavir shot had contracted HIV by an interim analysis, prompting the independent data monitoring committee to recommend Gilead unblind the Phase 3 trial and offer the treatment to everyone in the study. Other participants had received standard daily pills.”
AMA's House of Delegates Says Yes to Drug Decriminalization
“The American Medical Association (AMA) voted to support eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use at the annual House of Delegates meeting in Chicago on Wednesday…’ We have tried for decades to criminalize our way out of a substance use crisis in this country, and it has not worked ... We need to move to something different and better, something that actually works.’”