Nassau, Suffolk lawsuit restores HIV/AIDS funds
BY JENNIFER MALONEY
Nassau and Suffolk counties have won a lawsuit against the United States Department of Health and Human Services to regain more than $1 million in cut funding for HIV/AIDS services.
The case, decided Friday in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, overturned an order of the U.S. District Court, which had agreed with the federal government that Long Island no longer qualified for the annual amount of HIV/AIDS funding it has received since 1990, according to court records.
The ruling comes in response to an injunction requested by the counties to delay the decision of the District Court.
In 2006, Long Island received $6.1 million, but in 2007, after the passage of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, Nassau and Suffolk counties were reclassified from an “eligible metropolitan area” to a category that qualified for less money.
The size of the potential loss was unclear but AIDS advocates last year said it could be between $1.5 million and $1.7 million for both counties together.
Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.Jennifer Kim, a spokeswoman for Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, said, “We’re very pleased with the outcome and we’ll know in the near future how much aid we’ll be getting.”
Suozzi is expected to announce the victory at a news conference today.
The Ryan White Act was created in 1990 to provide emergency relief funding to localities that were disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Congress passed an amendment in 1996 that protected the future funding of all regions that met the definition of “eligible metropolitan areas” that year, including Long Island.
Although Long Island has not had enough new HIV/AIDS cases over the past five years to meet the definition of “eligible metropolitan area,” that grandfathered clause allowed Nassau and Suffolk to retain their level of funding, federal appeals court Judge John M. Walker Jr. wrote in his opinion.
Long Island had 1,505 new cases over the past five years. Generally, “eligible metropolitan areas” have more than 2,000 cases.
Joining Nassau and Suffolk in the suit were several agencies that receive funding through the counties, including Long Island Minority AIDS Coalition; Federation Employment and Guidance Service, a nonprofit organization focused on health and human services; and Thursday’s Child, an HIV/AIDS support and advocacy group.
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