Some lawmakers and advocates are increasingly uncertain whether critical HIV and AIDS services will survive the federal government’s funding fight.

The GOP’s House-passed budget bill seeks to cut over $1.5 billion in services for people living with and vulnerable to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the U.S. — far greater than the cuts proposed by President Trump and the Senate.

It’s unclear whether the Senate or White House will support the bill once it’s considered after the government shutdown ends. But some warn passing the House’s proposed cuts would result in increased infections and deaths.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, called these efforts a “callous move” in a statement to The Hill.

“People across the country rely on the testing, PrEP access, early diagnosis, and lifesaving treatment these resources provide,” DeLauro said.

Eliminating these programs, she added, is not an option, and Americans living with HIV concur.

“Anyone old enough to remember the start of the AIDS epidemic here in the U.S. remembers what government neglect produced,” said Javier Muñoz, an actor living with HIV and affiliate of the #SaveHIVFunding campaign, a coalition of organizations advocating against HIV funding cuts. “Hundreds of thousands died. An entire generation is gone.”

“Protecting and sustaining current funding levels is a matter of life and death,” he said.

Clashing funding proposals

The House’s full-year funding bill proposes over $1 billion in cuts to domestic HIV/AIDS prevention and research services. Also at risk is $525 million for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, a flagship federal program that helps provide treatment for people living with HIV.

The bill’s additional proposed cuts to global initiatives bring total reductions to HIV-related services in the House budget to almost $2 billion.

Jeremiah Johnson, executive director of PrEP4All, an organization that advocates for universal access to HIV prevention and treatment, said the “brazen way” that the Trump administration had gone after international HIV programs led to a lot of immediate coverage of cuts to global programs.

He said cuts to domestic........

© The Hill