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Monday, December 10, 2012

Pierluisi’s Intervention Helps Preserve Federal Funding for Three Puerto Rico Health Organizations That Assist Women and Girls with HIV/AIDS

Washington, DC—Resident Commissioner successfully intervened with federal officials to help three health organizations in Puerto Rico continue to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which these organizations use to provide various services to women and girls who have HIV/AIDS or who are at risk of acquiring the disease.

The three organizations are the “Concilio de Salud Integral de Loiza”; the San Juan-based “Initiativa Comunitaria de Investigacion, Inc,” whose executive director is José Vargas Vidot; and the Maternal-Infant Studies Center at the University of Puerto Rico.

These three organizations receive funding from the Office of Women’s Health (OWH), a bureau within HHS. Each Puerto Rico organization received $141,666 in Fiscal Year 2012 from OWH. Assuming the availability of continued appropriations from Congress, each was scheduled to receive up to the same amount in Fiscal Year 2013 and Fiscal Year 2014, for a total of nearly $430,000 per grantee, and nearly $1.3 million for all three grantees combined.

However, during a meeting held on November 14, 2012, these three organizations from Puerto Rico, along with an organization from the U.S. Virgin Islands, were told by federal officials that their funding would be suspended in 2013.

Upon being alerted about the situation, the Resident Commissioner, working in conjunction with Congresswoman Donna Christensen from the USVI, immediately took action, contacting HHS officials and urging them to reconsider the apparent suspension of funding.

Today, in a phone call, Pierluisi was advised by federal officials that the Puerto Rico organizations and the USVI organization will not lose their funding, and that the information provided to these organizations on November 14th was incorrect.

“I am very pleased with this result. One of my primary roles as Resident Commissioner is to help bring federal funding to Puerto Rico in order to improve quality of life on the Island, and to intervene where necessary and appropriate to ensure that this funding is not interrupted or suspended absent just cause,” said Pierluisi.

“There are nearly 45,000 adults and children in Puerto Rico living with HIV/AIDS, which is one of the highest prevalence rates in the country. The services that these three organizations offer is of paramount importance, providing critical care to some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable residents,” the Resident Commissioner added.

Pierluisi thanked the medical director of Concilio de Salud Integral de Loiza, Dr. María Rodríguez Vázquez, who wrote the Resident Commissioner a letter advising him of the situation. Pierluisi also expressed his gratitude to OWH for promptly taking the steps necessary to clarify matters and to ensure that funding can continue to reach the Puerto Rico organizations who provide services to HIV/AIDS patients and the women and girls on the Island who depend on those services.