Conservative group demands NIH grant moratorium, investigation

The conservative Traditional Values Coalition is demanding a moratorium on grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), claiming that it has identified more than half a billion dollars in grants for "questionable research" of dubious value to taxpayers.

The coalition has also launched a petition against the NIH and is pressing President Obama to select a special prosecutor or other independent investigator to conduct a full review of the agency's budget. The NIH is crafting a response to what it calls the coalition's "inaccuracies," a spokeswoman said.

"While the White House and some in Congress raise the specter of cutting Social Security and Medicare, it is outrageous that the NIH continues to funnel huge amounts of taxpayer dollars for bizarre and politically correct 'research' to people who have made a career out of playing the federal grant game," coalition President Andrea Lafferty said in a statement.

The coalition says it conducted a six-month investigation into NIH grant applications using publicly available information and tips. The petition calls for a stop to NIH funding of "bizarre behavioral research that seeks only to fund, credential, and prop up the loony Left."

The petition comes as the NIH, like other federal agencies, is struggling to prevent deep budget cuts made by lawmakers concerned about the deficit. But the NIH has support from both parties, which defend its investments in primary research that can lead to commercially viable products down the line.

Still, behavioral research is by its very nature more open to criticism. The Traditional Values Coalition has a long history of fighting what it calls the homosexual "agenda," and its criticism of the NIH follows the same vein. 

Among the research it finds "questionable," the group mentions: 

• At least $9.4 million for a 10-year study that included a survey of gay men to determine average penis sizes "...to better understand the real individual-level consequences of living in a penis-centered society;"

• $154,500 spent asking individuals to mail in their toenails in an effort to research how much toenail nicotine is present versus saliva swabbing, at a cost of $154.50 per batch of toenails;

• $163,500 spent seeking to explain the "drug-using and sexual behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM) during a circuit party;" and 

• $1.2 million spent since 2003 trying to find out whether a mother rat, if given cocaine, will abandon her babies.

The coalition says it plans to release more information on the NIH's "practices" in the coming weeks.

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