David Price: “I am offering this amendment on behalf of our colleague from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt) and myself. I thank the chairman…”

“I am offering this amendment on behalf of our colleague from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt) and myself. I thank the chairman, the ranking member, and the staffs on both sides for their cooperation in moving this amendment forward. This is a bipartisan amendment that provides a long, overdue update to HUD's statutory funding formula for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program, also known as HOPWA. HOPWA is the only Federal program that is solely dedicated to providing housing assistance and related supportive services for low- income people and their families who are living with HIV/AIDS. In short, this amendment would base the distribution of HOPWA funds on the current number of people who are living with HIV/AIDS, who desperately need this support. This would replace the current formula based, incredibly, on the cumulative number of AIDS cases since the epidemic began decades ago. Last year more than 50 percent of the people counted in the HOPWA formula were deceased. To say the least, this has drastically reduced HOPWA's ability to aid jurisdictions where the present need is most acute. This is particularly true in rural areas and in cities that are currently bearing the brunt of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Mr. Chairman, Congress has sensibly adjusted other AIDS support programs, including the Ryan White program. So formula funds are distributed based on the number of living HIV and AIDS cases in a given jurisdiction.…”