Before year end, President Bush is expected to sign into law a $555 billion omnibus appropriations bill to fund all government agencies for FY 2008, with the exception of the Department of Defense which had its budget approved in October.  The massive omnibus bill (HR 2764), which includes funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program  through the Department of Health and Human Services, passed the Senate 76-17 on December 18 and the House 272-142 on December 19.  The bill finalizes FY 2008 funding levels for the outstanding 11 annual appropriations bills that were operating under FY 2007 levels through a series of short-term continuing resolutions (CR).  Also on December 19, Congress passed another CR through December 31 to give the President time to sign the bill.

The omnibus spending bill includes major cuts to several programs in order to meet the President's $933 billion FY 2008 budget request for discretionary spending, including Defense; President Bush had vowed since the beginning of the year to veto spending bills higher than his budget request.  For Ryan White, Part D (Title IV) retained half of its increase for FY 2008.  The omnibus bill funds Part D (Title IV) at $75 million, a $3.2 million increase over FY 2007.  However, a 1.7 percent across-the-board reduction to nearly all programs in the bill reduced the increase to $1.9 million, resulting in $73.69 million total funding for Part D (Title IV) for FY 2008.  This marks the first funding increase for Part D (Title IV) in five years.

Including the 1.7 percent rescission, other parts of Ryan White fared as follows: Part A received $627 million, Part B $1.195 million (including $808 million for ADAP), Part C $198 million, dental $12 million and AETCs $34 million.  Both dental and AETCs were flat-funded in the omnibus, and the impact of the rescission was a cut from their FY 2007 levels.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) HIV prevention program lost $3.6 million from its FY 2007 level, and the Early Diagnosis Grant Program remained in the bill.  The omnibus bill also removed the $28 million funding increase for the Community Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program that had been approved by the House earlier in the year and included in the conference report vetoed by the president.  Including the rescission, funding for CBAE is flat at $113 million, equal to its FY 2007 funding.