Cliff Stearns: “Mr. Chairman, this is a sensitive subject. I have a Congressional Research Report here, which I worked with in doing…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is a sensitive subject. I have a Congressional Research Report here, which I worked with in doing this amendment. My amendment has three components to it. The first identifies and asks NIH to identify amounts that are distributed, given to individuals and corporations seeking funds from the Institute to conduct research. We have had constituents who have applied to NIH and who have been unable to find out, after great frustration, why they did not get the money. They could not find out who the individual was who got the money, or corporations, and they did not know or find out how much it was. So my amendment, first of all, asks NIH to identify the monies that are given to individuals and also then the amendment asks that they identify the individuals so that we see the money expended, the individuals who received it and then we would like to see some justification for why the NIH gave this money. Now I have a report from the Congressional Research Service that sort of confirms what my amendment is talking about.”