Global Health Council president and CEO, Dr. Nils Daulaire, used his keynote address at the organization's conference June 2 to sharply condemn the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) April decision to cut funding for the event. Daulaire said that HHS "bowed to election-year political pressure." The Traditional Values coalition and other conservative groups had objected to the participation of two family-planning groups set to take part in the event. HHS claimed the funds were withdrawn because the Council was using them to lobby. However, the Council's conference followed the same practice commonly accepted to segregate federal funds from lobbying activity, holding an advocacy day separate from the rest of the agenda. After HHS announced its decision in April, the Council reacted cautiously and attempted to resolve the issue. This was the Council's 31st annual conference, which brings together public health professionals from around the world. The federal government has subsidized the conference for decades, and federal officials often participate, including the Secretary of HHS in 2001, the Administrator of the Agency for International Development in 2002 and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control in 2003. The trouble began when House Republican aides Sheila Maloney and John Casey e-mailed a message to alert pro-life (anti-abortion) groups that the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the United Nations Population Fund would take part in the conference. These groups have objected to the global gag rule that bars clinics, which receive federal funding, from discussing abortion with their clients. After the message was sent, the Traditional Values Coalition and other conservative groups asked HHS to withhold the funds. Twelve members of Congress also wrote HHS opposing the conference funding. Although HHS told the press the Council was spending federal funds for lobbying, an HHS spokesperson told OMB Watch that the Council was unable to demonstrate that federal funds had not been used for lobbying. This approach puts the Council in the impossible position of having to prove a negative. Federal regulations do not require grantees to use a specific accounting method or keep federal funds in segregated accounts. HHS has used this broad latitude to make vague, politically motivated accusations about improper use of federal funds in other cases as well, including that of STOP AIDS of San Francisco last year. HHS bowed to "a small group of right-wing extremists," Daulaire said. "Not one person in that clique has ever spent a day in a clinic in a developing country ... And they have clearly never spent a minute reflecting on the global cost in human lives that might result from acting out their Washington-centric games." He also said, "we have a responsibility to stand up and challenge those who hold positions of public trust when they are wrong -- and on this, they are wrong. And challenge them we will, not because of our one conference, but because of who might be next."