October 2 Joint Hearing on  Future of NIH

On  October 2, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Health, Labor,  Education, and Pensions Committee convened a joint hearing to discuss the recent  National Academies report on NIH reorganization, Enhancing the Vitality of  the National Institutes of Health: Organizational Change to Meet New Challenges. 

Much of the hearing was spent reviewing NIH budget  issues and addressing the future of NIH.  Giving testimony were Dr.  Elias Zerhouni (Director, National Institutes of Health), Dr. Harold  Varmus (Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, former NIH director) and  Dr. Harold Shapiro (Princeton University, Chair of the National Academies  Committee on the Organizational Structure of the NIH). 

Representative Joseph Pitts (R-PA) raised the old  issue of funding the studies cited in the Toomey Amendment, asking if there was a mechanism  in place at NIH that would allow for disputed research to be discontinued.  Also  speaking out against the peer review system were Rep. Michael Ferguson  (R-NJ).  Dr. Elias Zerhouni told the representatives  that the peer review process has integrity and "…we have to believe that these  processes are working." Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) spoke out in  support of the current peer review system, emphasizing the importance of not  allowing political ideology to interfere with the nation's health research.

 
"Hit List" of "Questionable" Research Made Public, October 27

On  October 27, Rep. Waxman continued to tout the importance of the peer  review system and the need to keep ideology separate from science in a letter to Secretary  of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson.  The letter, sent from  Rep. Waxman as Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on Government  Reform, was in response to the recent distribution of a "hit list" of 157  federally-funded researchers sent to NIH by Congress.  At the moment, the  ultimate purpose of this list is unclear, but according to Rep. Waxman, researchers whose  names appear on the list are being contacted by NIH and are now afraid that they  will be targeted for withdrawal of funding.  The research at issue appears to  consist of topic areas that have been recently denounced by Republican  congressional members.  An excerpt from Rep. Waxman's letter reads:    

"The subject areas of the grants generally cover HIV/AIDS,    human sexuality, and risk-taking behaviors.  These include grants to educate    college students about sexually-transmitted diseases, study female condoms,    understand the natural history of cancer in men with HIV, help prevent suicide    in gays and lesbians, identify risk factors for sexually transmitted diseases,    decrease HIV-related stigma, and fight HIV transmission among rural drug users." 

According to the latest reports, the conservative Traditional  Values Coalition is responsible for the creation of the list.  Once  they compiled the list, which contains information only available to HHS  employees, the coalition handed it over to Republican members of the House  Energy and Commerce Committee.  The coalition's executive director, Andrea  Laffterty, has called the grants in question "a total abuse of taxpayer  dollars."  HHS officials have denied any involvement in the creation of  the list.

   
October 28, Rep. Waxman sends second letter to HHS

Rep. Waxman's original letter to Secretary Thompson was sent  before the involvement of the Traditional Values Coalition in the creation of  the NIH list was know.  This second letter asks Thompson to continue the investigation of potential HHS  involvement in the creation of the list and to document any communication  between HHS officials and the Coalition since 2001.