NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ Reports on U.S. Government Withdrawal of Funding from GHC Conference
NPR's "Morning Edition" on Thursday reported on the Bush administration's withdrawal of support of the Global Health Council's "Youth and Health: Generation on the Edge" conference, which includes representatives from several reproductive health and AIDS advocacy groups (Wilson, "Morning Edition," NPR, 6/3). HHS over the past few years has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the conference and had planned to contribute $170,000 to this year's conference, which ends Friday in Washington, D.C., HHS spokesperson Bill Pierce said. USAID had committed about $190,000 to the conference, according to a government source. Pierce said the administration withdrew funding in April because of concerns that the money would be used for the conference's scheduled "Advocacy Day," during which participants can go to Capitol Hill to lobby congressional offices (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/27). However, GHC President and CEO Nils Daulaire said that there is no lobbying at the conference, only advocacy to educate Congress about health issues and that the withdrawal of funding hurts health care workers in developing countries who will not be able to attend the conference, NPR reports. According to NPR, Daulaire "reserved much of his anger" for Bush administration officials at CDC, HHS, and USAID, who he said "quickly bowed to election year political pressure" and "spurious allegations" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 6/3). The complete segment, which also includes comments from Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty, is available online in RealPlayer.
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