The severity of Washington, D.C.’s HIV/AIDS epidemic is no secret. [Three percent of the District’s population is infected](https://www.thehoya.com/news/dc-hivaids-rate-rises-to-3-percent/), the highest rate in the United States – a rate higher than West Africa’s and on par with Uganda’s.

And the crisis isn’t going away anytime soon; every mode of transmission is on the rise. Intravenous drug users (who comprise 18 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in D.C.), however, are most affected by a recent push in the wrong direction by Congress.

A House bill passed in July would lift a ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs, which provide treatment referrals to HIV prevention programs and clean needles to drug users. Federal funding for such programs is welcomed by D.C. leaders, but there’s a catch: the bill includes a ban on the operation of needle exchange programs within 1,000 feet of day care centers, schools, parks, playgrounds and youth centers.

Such a restriction would paralyze the implementation of effective needle exchange programs in the District, according to [AIDS Action, a national HIV/AIDS lobbying and advocacy group](https://www.aidsaction.org/), and D.C. political leaders.

The grievances of those supporting the restriction are understandable. Some parents may feel uncomfortable bringing their children to the playground or sending them off to kindergarten with the knowledge that drug users were partaking in HIV-prevention programs or accepting clean needles close by.

But that’s not enough to warrant sapping the effectiveness of these programs. Needle exchange programs are proven to decrease rates of risky behavior and rates of HIV infection. Moreover, federal funding for local needle exchange programs (in addition to the local D.C. taxes made available for funding the cause in December 2007) would expand city resources to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS through intravenous drug use, most likely offering a more controlled, effective set of programs city-wide. Expanded resources for treatment and prevention of drug use and HIV/AIDS are key to combating the capital’s severe epidemic. Federal funding for needle exchange programs is one of the most promising first steps.

U.S. senators will be the next to receive this bill on their doorsteps. They should keep the lives of D.C. residents in mind before debate on this unwise caveat begins.

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