How We're Spending

Each year, the U.S. government spends billions of dollars to help people in the United States and countries around the world who are living with HIV/AIDS.

By law, Federal programs must provide information on how they spend the funds they receive. Transparency in government promotes accountability, and provides meaningful access to information so that citizens can know what their government is doing and how Federal dollars are being spent. Review the chart below for an overview of Federal budget allocations for domestic HIV/AIDS programs and research.  For more information, see our blog posts about the HIV/AIDS elements in the nation’s budget.

Federal Domestic HIV/AIDS Programs & Research Spending

The U.S. government investment in the domestic response to HIV has risen to more than $27 billion per year.

Funding for HIV services is spread across multiple federal departments, including Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice, Veterans Affairs (VA), and Defense. Within HHS, in particular, responsibility for HIV programs is spread across multiple agencies including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Indian Health Service (IHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy (OHAIDP), the Office of Minority Health, and others. Responsibility for HIV research is led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); in addition, CDC, VA, Defense, and the United States Agency for International Development also support research initiatives. This distribution of responsibility is appropriate, as each agency has its own expertise, and different agencies operate different programs with varying legislative mandates, purposes and with unique histories.

The table below summarizes the Congressionally enacted budgets for recent federal fiscal years (October 1-September 30).

U.S. Federal Funding for HIV/AIDS: FY 2014 – 2016¹
(Info in USD $ Millions. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

^{NOTES: (1) Data are rounded and adjusted to reflect across-the-board rescissions to discretionary programs as required by appropriations bills in some years and some data are still considered preliminary. FY 2017 represents the President’s budget request only and not final, enacted amounts. (2) Ryan White totals include $34 million for Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) in each fiscal year. (3) FY 2014-FY 2017 funding levels at CDC include redistributed Business Services Support (BSS) funding to each CDC programmatic budget line and are therefore not directly comparable to prior year levels. (4) The NIH does not define HIV research as “domestic” given its broad application. However, for purposes of this analysis, all HIV research funding not designated as “global” was considered to be domestic research. (5) “Other domestic funding” includes amounts at: HHS Office of the Secretary; Health Resources and Services Administration; Food and Drug Administration; Indian Health Service; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Labor.}

U.S. Investment in the Global Response to HIV/AIDS

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the U.S. Government initiative to help save the lives of the more than 35 million individuals living with HIV/AIDS around the world. PEPFAR was launched in 2003 with strong bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress. With the generous support of the American people, the U.S. government has committed more than $6.6 billion to bilateral HIV/AIDS programs, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and bilateral tuberculosis programs. For details on current and recent funding, view this PEPFAR funding fact sheet. The PEPFAR Dashboards allow users to view and utilize PEPFAR planned funding, program results, and expenditure analysis data in an accessible and easy-to-use format.