MAP Advocate
AIDS Advocacy Update
Vol. 8 No. 9
May 21, 2002
In this issue:
Thank you for doing your job as an advocate. Legislators routinely commented that they were receiving calls and emails from people expressing concern and support for HIV-related issues. You did a great job!
And, thank you for your help with the MAP AIDSWalk. That's the primary
source of funding for MAP public policy work at the state Capitol. [By
the way, if you've yet to make a contribution to the 2002 AIDS Walk, you
can still do so. Send a check or give us a call.]
Minnesota AIDSWalk
MAP
1400 Park Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55404
or call 612-373-2411
No changes were made to the K-12 HIV/STD school curriculum requirement in 2002, though opponents to comprehensive sexual health education tried right up to the very last hours of the legislative session. Rep. Sondra Erickson [R - Princeton] tried to get the Minnesota House to adopt her so-called "promotion of marriage" bill.
Due to strong opposition led by Rep. Jim Davnie [DFL-Mpls.], the bill was tabled on a 66 to 64 vote.
With leadership from Rep. Scott Dibble [DFL-Mpls], limits were placed on proposed expansions in emergency health powers to respond to bioterrorism and new, emerging risks. A bill that would have allowed quarantine and isolation of individuals in cases similar to what happened when HIV emerged twenty years ago was first defeated by the House, and then passed with amendments proposed by MAP.
The change limits declaration of health emergencies to bioterroristic attacks or situations in which infectious agents might be airborne, and limits quarantine authority to communicable diseases that do not include sexually transmitted diseases, blood borne pathogens or diseases passed through intimate skin contact.
Funding for HIV prevention and care was not cut, despite the budget problems faced by the Legislature this year. Lawmakers did approve a transfer of $1 million in unexpended rebate funds to support the state's general drug access program. The rebates came from drug companies for HIV treatments purchased with state Medicaid or Ryan White CARE Act dollars.
Lawmakers made a technical correction enabling expenditure of the entire $150,000 appropriated in 2001 for HIV workplace education, and formalized the transfer of responsibility for managing Ryan White CARE Act dollars received by the state. Previously the Minnesota Department of Health handled these dollars. The change moves responsibility to the Department of Human Services.
An annual AIDS Walk tradition, Sen. Paul Wellstone [D-MN] rallied walkers again this year before they left Minnehaha Park. Wellstone called for increases in federal resources for fighting HIV both globally and at home.
Suggesting it "felt like the '80s" all over again, Wellstone encouraged walkers to remind people "what we have is not a moral crisis, but a public health crisis," and to sustain their passion and commitment to the cause.
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Friday, March 30, 2007
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