[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 331 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 331
Supporting the goals and ideals of ``National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness
Day''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 10, 2025
Mr. Pocan (for himself, Ms. Chu, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr.
Evans of Pennsylvania, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kelly of Illinois,
Mr. Nadler, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Sewell, Ms. Simon, Ms. Waters, Mrs.
Watson Coleman, and Ms. Johnson of Texas) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the goals and ideals of ``National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness
Day''.
Whereas ``National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day'' is a nationwide observance
that calls on people to take action to invest in the health, education,
and leadership of young people;
Whereas, more than 40 years into the epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention estimates that in the United States more than 1,189,700
people are living with HIV, and 30,635 people were diagnosed with HIV in
the United States in 2020;
Whereas, in 2020, youth aged 13 to 24 years composed 20 percent of all new HIV
diagnoses in the United States;
Whereas young people living with HIV are the least likely of any age group to be
retained in care and have a suppressed viral load;
Whereas 56 percent of young people living with HIV ages 13 to 24 are unaware of
their HIV status;
Whereas African-American youth are most impacted by the epidemic, representing
54 percent of new transmissions in young people ages 13 to 24;
Whereas young African-American gay and bisexual men are even more severely
affected, representing 53 percent (2,740) of new HIV diagnoses among
young gay and bisexual men;
Whereas young gay and bisexual men accounted for 84 percent (5,161) of all new
HIV diagnoses in people aged 13 to 24 in 2020;
Whereas the National HIV/AIDS Strategy expands the fact that youth experience
worse HIV outcomes on status awareness, pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake,
and health outcomes;
Whereas the National HIV/AIDS Strategy recommends children and young adults with
HIV need tailored and often more intensive medical and support services
to support them as they grow and become young adults;
Whereas the Division of Adolescent and School Health is the only Federal program
supporting HIV prevention for adolescents in schools;
Whereas the Nation's largest Federal program dedicated to providing care and
treatment for people living with HIV was named after Ryan White, a
teenager from Indiana who helped educate a Nation about HIV and AIDS in
the 1980s;
Whereas the Ryan White Part D Program is one of the national efforts to link
young people living with HIV to medical care and support services;
Whereas the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides youth, including
those living with or impacted by HIV and AIDS, better access to health
care coverage, more health insurance options, additional funding for sex
education, a prohibition against denying people living with HIV access
to health care, and expanded access to Medicaid which will support more
young people living with HIV receiving care; and
Whereas April 10 of each year is now recognized as ``National Youth HIV/AIDS
Awareness Day'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of ``National Youth HIV/
AIDS Awareness Day'';
(2) encourages State and local governments, including their
public health agencies, education agencies, schools, and media
organizations to recognize and support such a day;
(3) supports young people's right to education, prevention,
treatment, and care, and to live without criminalization,
discrimination, oppression, and stigma;
(4) promotes up-to-date, inclusive, culturally responsible,
and medically accurate information about HIV, such as pre-
exposure prophylaxis PreP, in sex education curricula to ensure
that all young people are educated about HIV, as called for in
the National HIV/AIDS Strategy;
(5) supports removal of HIV laws that are scientifically
inaccurate and unfairly criminalize young people living with
HIV for behaviors that are consensual or have no risk of
transmission;
(6) urges youth-friendly and accessible health care
services, especially access to medications such as pre-exposure
prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, and antiretroviral
therapy without parental consent, to better provide for the
early identification of HIV through voluntary routine testing,
and to connect those in need to clinically and culturally
appropriate care and treatment as early as possible;
(7) supports the increase of funding for programs that
support people impacted by and living with HIV, including the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of
Adolescent and School Health, the Division of STD Prevention,
and the Division of HIV Prevention, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS
Program, the Medicaid program, AIDS Drug Assistance Programs,
and programs that support medical mentorship, peer navigation,
educating communities on testing and treatment options, and
people accessing PrEP, and ensure a smoother transition to
adult HIV care;
(8) recommends a comprehensive prevention and treatment
strategy that empowers young people, parents, public health
workers, educators, faith leaders, and other stakeholders to
fully engage with their communities and families to help
decrease violence, discrimination, and stigma toward
individuals who disclose their sexual orientation or HIV
status;
(9) calls for a generation free of HIV stigma in a manner
that prioritizes youth leadership and development in order to
ensure youth involvement in decisions which impact their health
and well-being as well as advance a pipeline for the next
generation of HIV and AIDS doctors, advocates, educators,
researchers, and other professionals; and
(10) recognizes the direct impact from harmful legislative
efforts seeking to restrict bodily autonomy for young people,
such as restrictions on abortion and birth control access and
bans on transgender health care, which negatively impact youth
access to nonstigmatizing HIV prevention, education,
confidential testing and treatment, and increases risk for
criminalization.
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