As Pride Month Begins, Leader Schumer Slams Trump Administration For Targeting LGBTQ Americans And For Cruel, Extremist HIV/AIDS Cuts; With Over 14,000 Jobs At Risk & $2 Billion Stripped To Directly Diagnose, Treat, & Prevent HIV/AIDS, Schumer Calls On RFK To Immediately Reverse Cuts & Stand Down From Making LGBTQ Community Target Of His Extreme Agenda
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent the following letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy demanding the immediate reinstatement of funding to the HHS programs dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Leader Schumer noted that if these senseless and cruel cuts continue, they would permit the spread of thousands more infections, threaten hundreds of thousands of lives, increase the financial burden for those living with the disease, and cripple our country’s ability to respond to HIV.
Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent the following letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding the immediate reinstatement of funding to the HHS programs dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV/AIDS and a detailed response explaining further administration resources that will be allocated to fighting this epidemic.
Leader Schumer said, “Currently, over one million Americans live with HIV/AIDS and the dramatic funding cuts from the Trump administration – including fired staff, hundreds of canceled grants for HIV research, and gutted federal funding for HIV prevention – will result in thousands more infections, potentially over 100,000 deaths, and an increased financial burden for individuals and our country. It is dangerous and ill-informed and will drag us backwards in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a place where we have made so much progress for so long.”
“There exists a cruel truth – these devastating HHS funding cuts could lead to thousands of American lives lost,” added Leader Schumer. “The Trump administration, and Secretary Kennedy specifically is on a misguided crusade to undermine trust in science and vaccines and proven-effective health policies. However, despite whatever nonsense they are peddling, the reality is that the United States has made great strides in fighting HIV/AIDS, preventing its spread, lowering the cost of treatment, and saving lives. We must not reverse course. We must continue to do whatever we can to help the millions already living with it, and stop millions more from ever having to learn how to manage it.”
Leader Schumer specifically noted the cruelty of making this cut right before June, as our nation celebrates Pride Month. While HIV/AIDS can affect people of any race, sexual orientation, and gender, historically the disease has disproportionally affected gay and bisexual men, and transgender people. As the Trump administration continues its all-out assault on the LGBTQ+ community, removing barriers for discrimination, these funding cuts are part of a larger pattern.
With the additional cuts last week, HHS has now stripped over $2 billion in research funding related to fighting HIV/AIDS. Research cuts, in addition to proposed cuts in HIV/AIDS prevention, that could lead to over 14,000 jobs lost.
“These funding cuts are not only cruel – they are financially and economically ruinous,” said Leader Schumer. With the proposed cuts, there will be an expected 48% increase in infections, which will total over $30 billion in cumulative lifetime costs from new infections.
During his first term, President Trump committed to significantly reducing new HIV infections across the country with the creation of the “Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S.,” or EHE initiative. These funding cuts are a harmful reversal and an abdication of duty, according to Leader Schumer. These cuts, coupled with the Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts that Republicans are seeking in the reconciliation process, will fundamentally cripple our country’s response to fighting HIV/AIDS.
Leader Schumer has long been an advocate for increased funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. New York state has over 100,000 residents living with HIV/AIDS, including over 60,000 in New York City alone. Leader Schumer has fought to secure millions in federal funding to extend healthcare accessibility, including for organizations like Trillium Health, which was established in 1989 as an HIV/AIDS clinic during the height of the AIDS crisis. During the coronavirus pandemic, Leader Schumer worked to secure funding which would help people living with HIV/AIDS find the care necessary to combat COVID-19.
The full text can be seen here and below.
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Secretary Kennedy,
I write with concern about the harmful impact that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funding cuts and firings are having on the health of the millions of Americans living with HIV. The actions that you have taken as part of this administration to fire researchers and cancel funding into essential research puts millions of lives at risk and threatens decades of progress in the fight to end HIV. Moreover, these decisions reflect a reversal of President Trump’s 2019 creation of the “Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S.”, or EHE initiative, which sought to significantly reduce new HIV infections across the country. I call for an immediate reinstatement of HHS funding to the programs dedicated to HIV and AIDS, and request a detailed response on administration personnel and resources that will be dedicated to prevent, diagnose, treat, and respond to HIV in the U.S.
This administration has dangerously hampered HIV response efforts by firing staff and cutting research funding across HHS – not to mention cancelling more than 200 grants for HIV research this year. On Friday May 30th, HHS cancelled funding for a broad swath of vaccine research, including two major HIV vaccine research efforts that were first funded by the NIH in 2012. This threatens innovative approaches to ending the spread of HIV infection. Your ongoing crusade to undermine public trust in vaccines will have profound harmful impacts for communities across this country, and this latest step will specifically threaten future generations at risk for contracting HIV. Researchers have clearly stated that the HIV pandemic will never end without a vaccine, and the decision to eliminate this research will lead to more deaths. I strongly encourage you to remove yourself from the scientific work being done by professionals at agencies across HHS and allow the vaccine research community to continue their noble work to prevent HIV.
Over a million people in this country are living with HIV/AIDS, including more than 100,000 in New York State and over 60,000 in New York City alone. As a result, New York has a strong network of individuals dedicated to ending the spread of HIV infections and improving the lives of people with HIV, based on 25 years of scientific investment and coalition building. The elimination and weakening of key federal programs - the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Initiative, the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention, the Minority AIDS Initiative, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program and NIH funding – will have ripple effects across New York. This funding is not only used by the nation’s leading academic medical centers, many based in New York, but also to pioneer community-based interventions that serve as models for the entire country. While the HIV community is resilient, these indiscriminate cuts threaten the very fabric of HIV response.
These cuts not only threaten people’s lives, but also their livelihoods by creating an additional financial burden for communities across the country. Estimates show that ending federal funding for HIV prevention will lead to 143,000 more people becoming infected within 5 years, an additional 127,000 who will die of AIDS-related causes, and an additional $60 billion in excess medical costs. Moreover, the current reconciliation bill supported by the Republican party threatens to kick 14 million people off Medicaid. Since 40% of adults with HIV are covered with Medicaid, we will see more people seek needed medical care at later times and without any insurance coverage, adding more costs to the entire healthcare system. These threats to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act will only worsen the medical care provided to people with HIV and completely contradict the public support you lend to investing in preventive care.
The HHS funding cuts and firings are destroying this nation’s ability to respond to HIV. Just six years ago President Trump publicly committed to slowing the spread of HIV infections with the eventual goal of reducing infections by at least 90% in 2030. This goal now proves laughable in the fact of these reckless decisions to cancel innovative research funding and take a chainsaw to the community-based programs that allow for people with HIV to live healthy, long lives.
I call for an immediate reinstatement of HHS funding to the programs dedicated to HIV and AIDS, and request a detailed response on administration personnel and resources that will be dedicated to prevent, diagnose, treat, and respond to HIV in the U.S. Please provide a written response to this letter by July 1st, 2025.
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