CUTS KILL: House Passes Deadly Reconciliation Bill Cutting Access to Healthcare & Decimating the Nation’s HIV Response

Today, by a narrow margin, the US House of Representatives forced through the Trump Administration’s domestic policy bill, a final hurdle in passing a reconciliation package that will rob approximately 17 million people of access to health care, including people living with and vulnerable to HIV, in order to provide tax cuts and workarounds for the rich. The killer bill will lead to at least 51,000 excess deaths annually nationwide in order to provide ultra-wealthy individuals with an average $309,000 in annual tax cuts. This Big Bad Betrayal of a bill not only cuts effective and cost-efficient health care, but also food and nutrition support, housing, and adds billions to the budget to target and detain immigrants nationwide.

By attacking Medicaid directly, which provides health care coverage for 40% of people living with HIV in the United States, our entire domestic response to the epidemic will be destabilized. Additionally, the bill will remove vital food assistance from millions by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Thousands of people living with HIV or vulnerable to HIV rely on the SNAP program to reduce food insecurity, which interferes with effective HIV treatment. As people lose coverage and access to food and nutrition, new pressures will be placed on the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and HIV prevention programs that are also at great risk in the annual Congressional appropriations process. Donald Trump, his Administration, and Congressional leaders appear all but determined to provoke a resurgence of HIV and AIDS across the country.

As HIV advocates, we will fight to protect our communities in every way possible during the implementation of this bill, and we will continue to combat the dramatic cuts to HIV programs that have been proposed by the Trump Administration and now embraced by Republicans in both houses of Congress. We will hold leaders accountable for the deadly consequences of this bill for our communities and so many others. Every time someone in America loses healthcare coverage, every time there is not enough food to sustain an individual and family’s health and well-being, and every time a loved one finds themselves met with unaffordable medical bills and the possibility of bankruptcy, they should understand that the passage of this Big Bad Betrayal of a bill holds significant blame for their pain and suffering. As we see increases in AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections – despite having all of the tools to eradicate the domestic HIV epidemic – the millions of people who are part of our movement will remember and advocate to ensure that this will not happen again.

The Save HIV Funding campaign is so grateful to the thousands of HIV community members and advocates around the country who spent countless hours calling, emailing, protesting, and meeting with their Senators and Representatives to push back against this deadly bill. They have educated members of Congress and their staff; protested at the Capitol; and continued to push back against passage of this Big Bad Betrayal of a bill that will cause irreparable harm. These efforts were not in vain – we and so many of our allies have made clear just how unpopular this bill is, putting its proponents on the defensive and helping to defeat several amendments that would have made the outcome even worse. 

On this dark day, we remember the history of our movement. We remember the impossible odds that people living with and vulnerable to HIV have faced before, and how through tenacity, creativity, and anger, they turned the tide. We urge everyone to stay connected to the Save HIV Funding campaign as we hold representatives accountable and continue to fight to protect people living with and vulnerable to HIV by fighting for the care and support our community needs. The work continues now by fighting impoundment of FY25 funding by the Trump Administration as well as by advocating for full funding for HIV programs in the FY26 annual Congressional appropriations process. 

The HIV community knows that Silence = Death. We will not be silent. As we have always done, our community and advocates will lead and work with allies to stand up, act up, and fight back.