Petrelis Files

Patricia Bass
Director, AIDS Activities Coordinating Office
Philadelphia Department of Public Health
1101 Market Street, 9th floor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107

Dear Ms. Bass:

In your capacity as chair of the Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief Coalition, a Washington-based lobbying organization, you're responsible for answering questions about the coalition's finances, which is why I am writing to you.

The CAEAR Coalition's agenda is clearly spelled out on its web site; lobby Congress and the White House to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act this year with at least one billion dollars to assist people with AIDS. (Source: CAEAR Coalition )

The IRS 990 file from 2002 for the coalition shows it received $1,748,250 in government grants and the 2003 IRS report says the coalition took in $1,675,407 from government contributions. (Sources: 2003 tax return , page 1; and 2002 tax return , page 1.)

So for this two-year period the coalition received a total of $3,423,657 from government funding sources and I am not aware of any government entity at either the federal or local level that doles out money for lobbying purposes.

Since the IRS 990 form does not disclose if that $3.4 million came from federal or local governments, I would like to know from you where this money came from.

Did the federal Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency responsible for administering Ryan White CARE Act funds, contribute any amount to your coalition's rather large advocacy budget? Were any other sub-agencies of HHS responsible for donating public funds to your group?

If the answer to either question is yes, please then inform me of how much money was given and by which part of HHS.

On the other hand, if your coalition's funding came from local governments, I would like to know which cities and counties contributed local taxpayer dollars for your lobbying efforts.

Frankly, I've never heard of any federal or local government endowing a private tax-exempt organization with taxpayer funds for lobbying purposes and believe the public deserves to know which government bodies contributed to your group.

A prompt reply is requested and appreciated.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA