Rep. Nancy Pelosi today criticized the House Republican leadership for failing to properly arm local health officials in the ongoing war on the spread of HIV/AIDS. By a vote of 266-158 the House voted to bar the Secretary of Health and Human Services from spending any federal funds for Needle Exchange Programs. "With today's vote, the Republican-led House stripped the Secretary's authority to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS," Pelosi said.
When Congress instituted the ban on needle exchange in 1988, it said it could be lifted when such programs met two conditions: that needle exchange be shown to reduce the spread of HIV and not increase illegal drug use.
In July, the American Medical Association joined with the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the General Accounting Office, and the National Academy of Sciences in finding that needle exchange programs are effective in slowing the spread of HIV. The National Institutes of Health has found that needle exchange brought more than a 30% reduction in the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users.
"What we are talking about here is needle exchange, not needle giveaway," said Pelosi speaking against the restrictive Hastert Amendment during floor debate. "Needle exchange doesn't increase the number of needles on the street. It decreases the number of contaminated needles in circulation."
In the interest of cutting costs and acting fiscally responsible, Rep. Pelosi reminded the Members of the cost-savings associated with prevention. "Aside from the human and emotional toll the HIV infection inflicts, the medical cost of caring for someone infected with the virus is $120,000. We can prevent infection and the spread of the disease with a 10-cent syringe. That makes fiscal sense to me," Pelosi said.
The needle exchange amendment was attached to the Labor-Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill.
