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November 2003 On Monday, November 10, the National Organizations Responding to AIDS (NORA) coalition, of which AIDS Action is the convener, held its monthly meeting. The topic for this month’s discussion was an update on the federal budget process and appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2004. Craig Higgins, the Majority Clerk for the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and a staffer from the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs were scheduled to present at the meeting. However, last-minute meetings prevented them from making it to the meeting. Instead, Donna Crews and Michael Carrigan, of AIDS Action’s Government Affairs team, gave a presentation on the current status of, and outlook for, FY 2004 appropriations. Mr. Carrigan opened the conversation by providing coalition members with a general overview of the current status of the FY 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-H) and Foreign Operations (Foreign Ops) appropriations bills. The Labor-H bill funds most of the domestic HIV/AIDS programs, while Foreign Ops includes spending for global AIDS initiatives. Both bills are currently in conference. (The two bills passed the House in July; then, the Senate passed Labor-H in September and Foreign Op in October.). Following Mr. Carrigan’s overview, Ms. Crews shifted the joint presentation’s focus to the two possible scenarios for completion of the bills: they will either be finished individually or combined with other unfinished bills into an omnibus bill, and what the timeline for these actions might be, given Congress’ target adjournment date of November 21, and offered suggestions for influencing what is left of the process. Following
the presentation, NORA members posed questions and engaged in
discussion about what remains of the FY 2004 appropriations process
and strategies for getting out the full-funding message. Conversation
also touched on the fiscal year 2005 budget and the upcoming 2005
reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act. |
