Trump terminated all members of HIV/AIDS council with no explanation
The remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS have all been terminated by President Trump. The news has been confirmed by the council’s executive director Kay Hayes.
Six members of the council had resigned in June, saying they handed in their resignations due to “a president who simply does not care” about the issue. The council had 16 remaining members and they were fired by registered letter on December 27 though many of them had more time left on their terms as advisers.
Hayes said, “Current members of Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) received a letter informing them that the Administration was terminating their appointments,” according to an email statement by Hayes.
The statement went on to say, “They were also thanked for their leadership, dedication and commitment to the effort. Changing the makeup of federal advisory committee members is a common occurrence during Administration changes.”
PACHA, a federal advisory committee, was created in 1995 to provide “information, advice, and recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding programs, policies, and research to promote effective treatment, prevention, and cure of HIV disease and AIDS.”
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In September, Trump signed an executive order that renewed the council for one more year. That is one of the reasons these firings that came without explanation has surprised so many people.
While some of the members had been on the council since Bill Clinton was in office, Gabriel Maldonado, CEO of the Riverside, Calif.-based LGBT and HIV/AIDS group Truevolution, said, “It is common for appointees to be terminated and for folks to kind of want their own people in.
“I think where the discrepancy comes in is why a year later, number one? Two, many of us, our terms were over earlier this year and we were sworn back in, and three were stayed on nearly four months after an executive order was signed continuing the council,” he said.
The Trump administration has not appointed a director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, which is one of the main reasons for the mass resignations in June. The impact of the administration’s proposed $800 million cut to HIV/AIDS prevention and research efforts also played a role.
The cut would decrease the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by 17 percent and slash global health programs by $2 billion causing AIDS experts to predict that it would “upend progress on curbing the epidemic.”
