August 3, 2009

DC Officials Work to Preserve Needle Exchange Funding

In 2007, Congress lifted a 10-year-old ban on using tax dollars to fund Washington, DC, needle exchange programs, but a restrictive House amendment could essentially reinstate the ban, The Washington Post reports. The 2010 federal appropriations bill would prevent the city from providing funding to any such program that distributes needles within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers, pools, arcades or other locations where children convene.

According to the article, a Senate version of the bill—still in committee—does not include the aforementioned restrictive amendment, and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D–DC) is urging her “friends in the Senate” to keep their eyes open for a similar amendment in their version of the bill.

“It essentially wipes out the program,” said Norton, who affirms that its sponsor, Representative Jack Kingston (R–Ga.), misrepresented the measure in his initial announcement. She claims he said it would only prohibit needle exchanges from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, which is already restricted by DC law.

If the Senate does not include such an amendment in its version of the bill, members will discuss it further after Congress returns from its August recess. Norton, AIDS activists and other supporters of the bill fear that the restrictive amendment will boost the city’s already-high HIV rate if it becomes law.

“This is my first priority because of the relationship of needle exchange to our HIV rate—it’s the reason our rate is above cities like Baltimore and New York,” Norton said. “I am shocked that…we have to replay this story.”

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Alan, Raleigh, 2009-08-04 13:01:14
ok, here's a hard one to understand.... if the policy is reversed, publish graphs quarterly showing the HIV infection rates in DC.... if it goes up, offer to have the legislators publicly explain why, then eat the paper their stupid ideas were printed on.