The Jersey City Independent "

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Talk about timing. In our piece published on Friday that looked at Jersey City’s new needle exchange program, we noted that the main obstacle to the program (as well as other programs around the state) was funding, with no state funds appropriated to needle exchange under the pilot program and with a federal ban on funding syringe access programs. We mentioned there was a grain of hope at the federal level, as President Obama had expressed support for the programs, which have long shown to be effective in reducing HIV/AIDS transmission rates.

The very same day, the first step towards overturning the federal ban was taken by the House Appropriations Committee. The fiscal year 2010 Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Bill, which details specific ways for those departments to spend the money already proposed in the FY2010 budget adopted by Congress in April, in its current subcommittee markup form, “deletes the prohibition on the use of funds for needle exchange programs.”

In a statement upon the bill’s release, committee chairman Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) said: “Scientific studies have documented that needle exchange programs, when implemented as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy, are an effective public health intervention for reducing AIDS/HIV infections and do not promote drug use. The judgment we make in this bill is that it is time to lift this ban and let State and local jurisdictions determine if they want to pursue this approach.”

The bill will be heard by the full Appropriations Committee on Friday, July 17, and could be in front of the full House not long after. If it wins final approval by the House and Senate and is signed into law by President Obama, it would give states and local jurisdictions the ability to use federal funds for needle exchange programs. This would be a big step towards solidifying funding opportunities for programs like the newly-launched one in Jersey City.