Spending Freeze Could Impact the Country's Most Vulnerable

New York, New York, January 27, 2010 – During his first State of the Union Address, President Obama spoke about a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs proposed to get the United States on track to economic recovery and cutting the budget deficit. Unfortunately, the payoff in budget savings will be small, relative to the deficit: the estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that same time. This means no new funding for AIDS treatment, housing for people living with HIV/AIDS, HIV prevention education or many of the programs we know positively impact the lives of the Latinos/Hispanics we serve.

The new proposal hurts communities most vulnerable during one of the country’s worst economic crisis: the poor, the disabled, people lacking health care and people living with HIV/AIDS. Latinos and many others are losing their jobs, their homes, and their health care in record numbers and the domestic spending freeze is likely to further burden an already strained social service system.

Guillermo Chacon, President of the Latino Commission on AIDS stated, “Social service and direct care organizations know that this is a very difficult time for our country and the recession has long been felt by our clients and partner organizations. Across the country, State budget cuts have forced many agencies to close down programs and in many cases, their doors. When so many more Americans need to rely on social programs to survive, this spending freeze has the potential to harm many of our most vulnerable communities.”

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ABOUT THE LATINO COMMISSION ON AIDS
The Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA) is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1990 dedicated to fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Latino/Hispanic communities. The Commission is the leading national Latino AIDS organization coordinating National Latino AIDS Awareness Day and other prevention and advocacy programs in more than 40 States and Puerto Rico. For more information visit: www.latinoaids.org or www.nlaad.org. UNIDOS PODEMOS / UNITED WE CAN


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