House Rejects Conservative Bid to Block Four Federal Grants for Sex Research

The House yesterday handed a narrow defeat (212-210) to conservatives who sought to forbid the National Institutes of Health from funding four sexual health research projects.

The vote derailed an effort by Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to block the grants, expected to total $1.4 million, for next year. "I ask my colleagues, who thinks this stuff up?" Toomey said. "These are not worthy ... of taxpayer funds." Toomey is challenging moderate Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) for the GOP’s Senate nomination next year.

Opponents said lawmakers would set a dangerous precedent by killing the projects. "We have no business making political judgments on these issues," said Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.).

The National Institutes of Health funds about one-third of the 120,000 grant applications it receives each year, said Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio). NIH is a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services and is the government’s main source of biomedical research.

According to Toomey’s office, the grants and their estimated costs are:

• $237,000 to the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University-Bloomington to study mood arousal and sexual risk taking.
• $69,000 to New England Research Institutes Inc. in Watertown, Mass., to study sexual habits of older men.
• $641,000 to the University of California-San Francisco’s Department of Medicine to study drug use and HIV-related behavior by San Francisco’s Asian prostitutes and masseuses.
• $500,000 to the University of Washington-Seattle to study American Indian and Alaskan Native lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and "two-spirited individuals."

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