In a new policy update, the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) and the Treatment Access Expansion Project (TAEP) examine the 110th Congress’s actions surrounding HIV/AIDS, specifically regarding access to care and treatment, funding, prevention, education and research.

The policy report, printed in the January/February 2008 issue of POZ, compares the AIDS community’s expectations of the first Democrat-controlled Congress in 12 years with the actual results of the past year. “Although AIDS advocates have seen more Congressional goodwill than in recent years, the high hopes for the 110th Congress remain largely unfulfilled,” the organizations write. “To have a truly successful HIV/AIDS policy agenda depends on electing a supportive president, or securing a veto-proof majority in Congress.”

The report calls attention to new bills that seek to address the need for affordable health care for HIV-positive people; the importance of the Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA), which would allow Medicaid programs to cover HIV-positive people who do not have AIDS; a need for health services for HIV-positive people battling mental illness or addiction; and hopes that the 2008 U.S. presidential election will bring about further, more concrete policy changes.

To read the complete report, and to learn how to join the dialogue on policy issues, click here.