Presidential AIDS Panel Criticizes Clinton for Failing to Fund Prevention Efforts, Including Needle Exchange

HARM REDUCTION January 1998

The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, in its second progress report, criticized the Clinton Administration for failing to show a "coherent plan of action" against AIDS, despite the abundance of evidence indicating the effectiveness of preventive efforts, including needle exchanges. In the report, the panel said funding for prevention is inadequate, too few Americans have access to effective treatments, and the Administration has failed to expand Medicaid to cover all low-income patients in the early stages of HIV infection. The panel urged the Administration to work for the removal of the Congressional mandate against federal funding for needle exchange programs ("AIDS Panel to Clinton: Leadership is Lacking," USA Today, December 8, 1997).

Daniel C. Montoya is the Executive Director of the advisory council which is part of the Office on National AIDS Policy. The director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, Sandy Thurman, attributed the "sense of diminished priority for AIDS issues" to the great strides that occurred during Clinton's first term. Total funding for federal AIDS research has risen since Clinton took office in 1993.

Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, Office of National AIDS Policy, 808 17th Street, NW, Suite 820, Washington, DC 20006, Tel: (202) 632-1090, Fax: (202) 632-1096.