Media Contact:
Joe Hui
Director of Communications
jhui@aplahealth.org
213.201.1342
5.6.2025
End the Epidemics–a coalition of more than 120 community-based organizations working to end the HIV, STI, viral hepatitis, and overdose epidemics in California–is calling for the state legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom to allocate $60 million in state funding to cover cuts at the federal level to HIV prevention. The funding could be re-allocated from revenue generated from the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).
End the Epidemics is advocating for the state to commit $60 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget to cover anticipated CDC cuts to HIV prevention. The ADAP has generated more than $1 billion that California could use for this purpose.
End the Epidemics’ funding requests also include backfilling federal cuts to the DIS Syndemic Workforce Supplemental Funding Grant–$45 million over the next three years–which funds contact tracing and case investigations to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases (including HIV and STIs), and allocating $2 million over the next two years to support health departments and other community organizations in purchasing innovative hepatitis C testing equipment.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has slashed departments and funding of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies including the CDC. This has implications for local and state health departments, as federal funding flows from CDC to local and state health departments–making up more than half of yearly budgets of health departments across the nation. Across the U.S., more than $910 million in CDC funding is allocated for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis.
“Slashing HIV prevention from the CDC is a disaster,” says APLA Health CEO Craig E. Thompson. “A cut this large to federal prevention funding not only means more HIV infections—it also means more people out of care for longer periods of time. We need California to step up and use our hard-fought dollars toward making sure that we keep preventing new and needless HIV infections. Generations of people vulnerable to HIV deserve as much.”
Sixty percent of CDC funding to California is supplemental and discretionary–and therefore vulnerable to cuts at the federal level. Nearly all time-limited, supplemental funding for public health initiatives, including Covid-19, is expected to be cut from future budgets.
The state of California, and the nation, has made steady progress towards ending the HIV epidemic since the height of the epidemic in the 1990s. An estimated 1.2 million people are currently living with HIV in the U.S. The Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative, launched by the first Trump administration in 2019, is credited in part with reducing the number of new annual HIV infections by 19% from 2016 (38,500 new cases) to 2022 (31,800 new cases).
Take action by demanding action from California legislators here.
Additional resources:
KFF: CDC’s Funding for State and Local Public Health: How Much and Where Does it Go? April 2025.
California HIV Surveillance Report (2022). Released February 2024.
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APLA Health (formerly AIDS Project Los Angeles) restores dignity and trust within underserved communities by providing world-class LGBTQ+ empowering healthcare, HIV specialty care, food, housing, and other essential support services. Since our founding in 1983, APLA Health has remained steadfast in our commitment to ending the HIV epidemic in our lifetime. We operate eight Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) locations in Los Angeles County, serving more than 19,000 people annually, regardless of ability to pay. Our list of comprehensive services includes LGBTQ+ primary care, dental care, behavioral healthcare, HIV specialty care, and Out Here Sexual Health services (PrEP, STD screening & treatment, DoxyPEP, and PEP). For people with HIV, our wraparound support services include housing assistance through the Alliance for Housing & Healing and nutritional support via the Vance North Necessities of Life Program, the largest food pantry in the United States for people with HIV, distributing over 800,000 meals annually. APLA Health’s annual fundraisers include AIDS Walk LA — the world's first and oldest AIDS Walk — and Best in Drag Show. We are leaders in advocating for policy and legislation at the local, state and Federal levels that positively impact the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities. For more information, visit aplahealth.org.
