• New Efforts to Prevent and Treat HIV/AIDS. The Congress has responded to the President’s and Vice President’s request to substantially increase efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. Congress has provided $1.4 billion for Ryan White Care Act activities. This funding level includes a 61-percent increase for the AIDS drug assistance program, which provides funds to States to help uninsured and underinsured people with life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS. In addition, Congress provided about $630 million for HIV prevention activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  
  
• Historic $130 Million Effort to Address HIV/AIDS in Minority Community. African Americans make up the fastest growing portion of the HIV/AIDS caseload (44 percent of all new HIV cases). In FY99, there will be an unprecedented $130 million investment, which will improve prevention efforts in high-risk communities, and expand access to cutting edge HIV therapies and other treatment needed for HIV/AIDS.
  
  
• Critical New Investments to Protect Public Health at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The Congress has responded to President Clinton’s request for a $2.4 billion investment -- a $222 million increase -- in public health at the CDC. This critical investment will address a host of public health challenges, including fighting emerging infectious diseases, combating new resistance to anti-biotics, and improving prevention for some of our nation’s leading killers, such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and heart disease.
  
  
• New Efforts to Improve the Quality of Health Care. Congress has responded to the President’s request for a $25 million investment in new research at the Agency of Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) to research on the quality, costs, and outcomes of the health care delivery system. Identifying critical health care problems and educating health plans, medical professionals, patients, and advocates about solutions can lead to important improvements in the quality of health care.
  
  
• Increasing Funding to Provide Health Insurance to Low-Income Children in Puerto Rico and the Territories. Thousands of uninsured children in both Puerto Rico and the other territories will now be eligible for meaningful health care coverage for the first time under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The territories were currently on schedule to receive an inadequate and inequitable $10.7 million in FY99. Today, the Congress responded to the President’s request and provided the territories with an additional $32 million in FY99 for their new CHIP programs that will meet the needs of their uninsured children.
  
  
• Funding the President’s Commitment to Eliminate Racial Health Disparities. Minorities suffer from higher rates for a number of critical diseases. For example, African Americans under the age of 65 have twice the rate of heart disease as whites, and Native Americans suffer from diabetes at nearly three times the average rate. The Congress has taken a critical first step in investing in the President’s multi-year proposal to eliminate racial health disparities in six health areas, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and immunizations. The Congress has given the Administration authority to fund grants for communities to develop new strategies to address these disparities and has granted the President’s request for increases in other critical public health programs, such as heart disease and diabetes prevention at CDC, that have proven effective in attacking these disparities.
  
  
• Lead Poisoning Prevention. The President requested a $25 million increase in funding for HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control, in order to reduce the threat posed by childhood lead poisoning and other housing-related environmental health hazards. The final budget includes a $20 million increase for lead poisoning prevention.

Budget Accomplishments

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