Talking HHS/OHAP [Health and Human Services Office of HIV/AIDS Policy]

March 15, 1996 MEMORANDUM TO: MARSHA SCOTT FROM: ERIC FANNING SUBJECT: TALKING POINTS ON HHS/OHAP BACKGROUND The Office of the Assistant Secretary of HHS for Health is in the process of being disestablished, and it's functions moved elsewhere within HHS. The Office of HIV/AIDS Policy (OHAP) budget and functions are being moved into the immediate office of the Secretary of HHS. However, in the FY97 budget, there is no specific line-item for this office, it's budget it merely being transferred in a larger, unspecified grouping. ISSUE You have already received calls complaining about the disappearance of an OHAP line-item in the HHS budget. Proponents of this decision claim that the money remains, and all functions with it. By removing the line-item from the budget, proponents claim, you are, in effect, helping to shield the budget by making it less visible to budget cutters on the Hill or others who might oppose such funding. Problems with eliminating the line-item are numerous: This creates the perception that this Administration is no longer as committed to AIDS research. Even with the money still there, the tag will be that we've eliminated the office. The argument that we are protecting this money from budget cutters will be a hard one to explain to those outside of Washington. It may require so much energy to explain this idea that we risk raising the profile of this office much higher than it currently is and making this office even more vulnerable in the future. Eliminating the line-item removes some of the language that codifies this office and makes its elimination easier for any future Secretary of HHS who is not as supportive of this function as the current Secretary.