AAMC Defends NIH Merit Review
Process
October 31, 2003 - AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen,
M.D. issued a statement
Oct. 29 defending the merit review system at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). The statement was issued in response
to a growing controversy that has emerged over congressional
scrutiny of certain NIH-funded grants. NIH has come under
increasing criticism in recent months for funding grants in
certain areas of research, including HIV prevention and sexual
behavior.
Dr. Cohen stated, "AAMC is deeply concerned about news
reports implying that some 200 NIH-funded research grants
on controversial, but critically important public health issues,
largely dealing with sexual behaviors, are being subjected
to extraordinary scrutiny as a result of pressure from either
members of congress or private advocacy groups. While congressional
oversight of the merit review process plays an essential role
in ensuring appropriate accountability for the nation's investment
in scientific research, the integrity of the oversight processes
themselves should never be compromised by intrusion of extraneous
sectarian or ideological issues."
The statement continued, "The Association deplores all
efforts to subject the NIH research portfolio and individual
research grants to ideological litmus tests. The American
public must demand that the most scientifically rigorous and
relevant research addressing vital public health concerns
be funded without regard to the sectarian or ideological views
of political parties or other special interest groups - regardless
of where they reside on the ideological spectrum."
Dr. Cohen emphasized "the AAMC remains convinced that
Dr. Zerhouni, the leaders of the 27 NIH institutes and centers,
and the senior administrative and scientific staff of the
NIH, are faithfully defending the integrity of the NIH peer
review system and will not tolerate any ideological distortion
of the values that have made NIH the most respected of government
agencies and the most trusted biomedical research enterprise
in the world."
During floor consideration of the FY 2004 Labor-HHS-Education
spending bill (H.R. 2660) in July, the House narrowly defeated
an amendment offered by Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to cancel
funding for five specific grants. At an Oct. 2 congressional
oversight hearing on NIH, several Republican members of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee raised questions related
to the decision-making process at NIH that resulted in these
grants being funded.
More recently, a "hit-list" of grants has emerged
that targets investigators conducting research in controversial
areas. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) in an Oct. 27
letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, denounced the
list as "scientific McCarthyism," and requested
the department clarify its role in the creation of the list.
The Traditional Values Coalition - a grassroots church lobbying
organization opposed to homosexuality and abortion - has taken
credit for compiling the list and has requested a Justice
Department investigation into federally funded grants on sexuality
and drug-abuse issues.
AAAS, the world's largest general science society, Oct. 30
denounced
TVC's efforts to block critical research on moral grounds.
"We can't let moralizing trump sound science when the
public's health and safety are at stake," said Alan I.
Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher
of its journal, Science. "They're targeting legitimate
studies that promise to give us new insights into how certain
behaviors contribute to diseases like AIDS," he noted.
"The question of whether or not such behaviors are moral
is irrelevant: they occur frequently and they are key factors
in the spread of disease. We must have the courage, as scientists
and citizens, to understand and confront them. Society deserves
no less."
Information:
Dave Moore, Senior Associate Vice President
AAMC Government Relations
dbmoore@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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