President Obama has released the fiscal year 2017 budget proposal, and along with it comes a fact sheet highlighting ways the budget is “enhancing the lives of Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

So far, at least two national AIDS groups have weighed in on the budget.

But first, here are some numbers from the White House fact sheet:

  • The budget invests $2.3 billion in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to provide treatment and care completion services for people living with HIV, and includes $900 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program [ADAP] to ensure that people living with HIV have access to life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) treatments.

  • The budget also includes funding for a new initiative to increase screening and expands access to Hepatitis C care and treatment among people living with HIV.

  • The budget includes $20 million for a new innovative pilot program to increase access to PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] and allow grantees, as the payer of last resort, to use a portion of funds to purchase the medication and other related health care services.

  • The budget provides $335 million for Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program to address housing needs among people living with HIV/AIDS and their families.

  • The budget includes $1.13 billion within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including a $57 million increase for medical care, to ensure that veterans living with HIV/AIDS receive high quality, comprehensive clinical care, including diagnosis of their infection and timely linkage to medical care.

To put these numbers in context, the AIDS Institute, a national policy group, released a statement titled “President Obama’s Budget Maintains Commitment to Domestic HIV & Hepatitis Programs.”

The press release explains that under the president’s proposed budget, Ryan White funding increases by $9 million while money for the ADAP funds remain the same. And while praising the new focus on HIV and hep C coinfection, the AIDS Institute notes that proposed increase “is far from what is needed to adequately fund our Nation’s hepatitis prevention efforts.”

The AIDS Institute also warns that the budget “proposes to eliminate dedicated funding for Part D of the Ryan White Program, which serves women, infants, children, and youth with HIV/AIDS…. Under the president’s proposal, Part D funding would be redirected to Part C of the Ryan White Program.”

Meanwhile, the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) released its own assessment under the subject line, “HIVMA Disappointed That President’s 2017 Budget Proposal Flat-Funds HIV Research.” Carlos del Rio, MD, FIDSA, chair of HIVMA, stated:

"The HIV Medicine Association is pleased that the president’s fiscal year 2017 budget proposal largely sustains funding for domestic HIV/AIDS programs. However, we are disappointed that under his proposal investments in HIV research are flat-funded for the third year in a row, and that funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief once again has not seen an increase since peak funding in 2010.

“We strongly support the president’s proposal to fund the National Institutes of Health at $33.136 billion in FY 2017 – maintaining the FY 2016 enacted level that included a $298 million increase for the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases in FY 2016 as compared with the FY 2015 level.  However, at this time of pivotal promise and potential for game-changing HIV research discoveries, it is disappointing that the President abandoned his FY 2016 proposal of a $100 million increase for HIV research at the NIH despite an overall enacted increase of $2 billion in FY 2016. His budget instead freezes HIV research funding at the FY 2015 level for both FY 2016 and FY 2017. Flat funding will slow progress toward the next breakthrough discoveries that hold promise for an HIV vaccine and a cure.”