An influential California congressman is defending taxpayer-funded studies on
truck stop prostitution and AIDS conspiracy theories while denouncing attempts
to reduce or eliminate spending on such studies as "scientific
McCarthyism."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House
Government Reform Committee, wrote Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary
Tommy Thompson Monday decrying such efforts and accusing the White House of
promoting such efforts.
As an example of the Bush administration's
purported "attacks on science," Waxman cited an alleged "hit list" of research
programs into "HIV/AIDS, human sexuality and risk-taking behaviors" funded by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The information was supposedly created
by Thompson's agency for use by Republican members of the committee who want to
eliminate funding for what Waxman called "provocative" research.
"This
'hit list' appears to be part of a calculated effort to subvert science and
scientists at NIH to a right-wing ideological agenda,"
href="http://www.cnsnews.com/pdf/2003/031028aWaxmanLetter.pdf"
>Waxman wrote.
"I urge you in the strongest possible
terms to denounce this scientific McCarthyism," Waxman wrote. "Imposing
ideological shackles on this research would be a serious public health
mistake."
But a conservative group said Tuesday that Waxman did not even
correctly identify the source of the information about which he was
complaining.
Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional
Values Coalition (TVC), believes Waxman is seriously overreacting to the
list.
"Waxman's paranoid," Lafferty said. "He sees a conspiracy behind
every tree. He's pathetic."
Bill Pierce, spokesman for Thompson's HHS,
described the controversy surrounding the list, generated by Waxman's letter, as
"sad."
In Waxman's letter, the congressman also urged Thompson to "launch
an investigation to identify anyone at HHS who has actively participated in
efforts to undermine peer-reviewed research at NIH."
Lafferty is offering
to save Thompson the trouble by volunteering the identity of those responsible
for the list.
"We've been researching this since the late '90s," Lafferty
explained. "He's says it's with the help of HHS? Quite the contrary, we're the
ones that uncovered this."
"This" is a list of $100 million worth of NIH
grants for what Waxman called "vital public health issues." Lafferty described
one of the studies, typical of those on the list Waxman believes should be
protected. An Emory University researcher looked at "Trucker Networks: Drug Use
and Disease Transmission."
"It examines truckers who have sex with other
truckers of the same sex, they're called 'truck chasers,' and female sex workers
called 'lot lizards,'" Lafferty explained. "So, we want to know, when people in
Keokuk, Iowa, and Omaha and Buffalo are sending their tax dollars to D.C., are
they sending them to study 'lot lizards?'"
The list of more than 250
NIH-funded studies includes:
- "Is Female Sexual Arousal Target Specific?" A researcher at Northwestern
University received a grant to assess "the genital arousal of 180 lesbian,
bisexual and heterosexual women as they watch erotic video clips of lesbian, gay
[sic] or heterosexual interactions;"
- Scientists at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor got funding for "Paths
to Promoting Teen Sexual and Mental Health," which "endorses sexual behavior and
condom use among teens;" and
- Oregon State University received nearly $175,000 to study "Conspiracies,
Perceived Discrimination and Sexual Behavior." The supposed AIDS prevention
study described HIV as "a manmade virus" and a "conspiracy" disproportionately
spread in minority communities as a result of alleged "racial discrimination in
contraceptive services."
Academic institutions were not the
only recipients of such questionable grants:
- The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was awarded funding for "Popular
Students' Influence on Peers' Sexual Initiation," a study of "6th graders who
[supposedly] have sex, specifically how their 6th grade peers influence them to
initiate sexual intercourse;"
- The Hispanic Health Council received taxpayer dollars to study
"Socio-cultural Factors on Syringe Sharing and HIV Risks: An Examination of
Social, Cultural and Environmental Factors in Syringe Sharing Behavior Among
Illegal Drug Users in Guangdong, China;" and
- CONDAX, LLC, received a grant to complete testing on its "Kwikeze (tm)
Condom System" under the research title "Effectiveness of Device to
Simplify/Increase Condom Use."
"What it is, is bureaucracy run
amok," Lafferty argued. "It is nameless, faceless bureaucrats at NIH who need
adult supervision and think that funding this kind of stuff is
appropriate."
While Lafferty said the programs should all be examined to
determine whether they are a proper use of taxpayers' money, she denied that TVC
set out to blacklist the researchers behind the studies.
"This was a list
of things that raised red flags. We wanted it looked into. It's not a 'hit
list,'" Lafferty explained. "We just want to know, we want to look at it and
see: Are they legitimate or not? Let's have a public discussion."
Pierce
corroborated Lafferty's assertion. "With just a little bit of homework, the
answers could have easily been discerned because the organization that created
the list said so when they were asked," Pierce said. "They've been looking at
this issue for a number of years going well beyond this
administration."
Waxman complained, however, that "there are strong clues
that this was an inside job," claiming that much of the information included
with the list "is not publicly accessible.
"Most of the grants are listed
with their amount of funding, data not available on the public NIH database of
grants," Waxman claimed. "However, such data are easily available on internal
computer systems at HHS."
Pierce disagreed, calling the data "publicly
available information" that anybody can get. "You've got to work a little hard
to get it, but not that hard," said Pierce, who described the whole controversy
as "a real shame."
"This is just another example of a completely
politically motivated diatribe that essentially ends up being a waste of
taxpayer-funded time and effort on the part of the department having to respond
to this," Pierce said. "A simple phone call would have gotten all of this
cleared up, and none of this would have happened.
"Unfortunately, this is
a pattern. We get lots of letters like this," Pierce concluded. "They tend to be
groundless."
