AIDS Action exits Project ABLE

On Jan. 30 Denise McWilliams, director of public policy and legal affairs for AIDS Action Committee (AAC), resigned from the steering committee of Project ABLE (AIDS Budget Legislative Effort), a coalition of more than a dozen HIV/AIDS organizations across the state that bands together to lobby for increased HIV/AIDS funding. AAC as an organization also resigned from the coalition.

McWilliams declined to give details on AAC's decision to withdraw from Project ABLE beyond citing "differing ideas on the most appropriate strategy." She said AAC would work with Project ABLE on a case-by-case basis when they agree on strategy, and she said AAC supports Project ABLE's current effort to increase the state's HIV/AIDS program budget by $6 million.

Mary Ann Hart, lobbyist for Project ABLE, said she is unsure why AIDS Action withdrew from the coalition.

"AIDS Action is one of many groups that belong to Project ABLE, and we have over the years worked well together. Up until very recently AIDS Action was part of the planning process. ... It seems like they are interested in taking a different direction. I don't think we're clear on what that is," said Hart.

She said Project ABLE has succeeded over the years in advocating for HIV/AIDS funding, winning budget increases nearly every year since 2002, when state budget cuts caused the budget to dramatically shrink. In particular she pointed to the coalition's success two years ago in lobbying successfully for a $1 million increase in funds to address disparities in HIV/AIDS services in communities of color. This year Hart said Project ABLE's top priority is pushing for another $2 million targeting disparities around HIV/AIDS.

Hart said another of Project ABLE's strengths is that the unified coalition of HIV/AIDS organizations has succeeded in keeping specific earmarks out of the AIDS budget, creating a more level playing field for agencies applying for state funding.

"I'm not sure there is a line item in the state budget that large that hasn't been riddled with particular earmarks for state agencies," said Hart.

Yet Jonathan Scott, executive director of Victory Programs, another member of the Project ABLE coalition, said the departure of AAC from Project ABLE will force other organizations within the coalition to reconsider how they lobby.

"I think it's a really important statement if for me your leading AIDS organization has made this statement, and I think the smaller AIDS organizations are probably at a crossroads now in what we do and where we take Project ABLE or where we go next around advocacy and lobbying," said Scott. He said Victory Programs has no plans to withdraw from Project ABLE.

Scott said over the past few years he and other members of Project ABLE have been dissatisfied with the modest increases in HIV/AIDS funding. He said two other trade associations of which he is a member, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, have radically altered their approaches to advocating for funding and have secured millions of additional dollars for their program areas in the state budget over the last several years. By contrast he feels that Project ABLE has not adapted its lobbying strategy to find new strategies for increasing HIV/AIDS funding.

"I'm not resigning as a member, but I think most members you talk to are definitely discouraged that we are not able to get the attention at the State House. ... We are moving on five or six years of really dire gains," said Scott.