Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi: Research Decisions Should be Made by Scientists, Not Politicians with Ideological Agendas

July 10 , 2003

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today after the House of Representatives defeated an amendment by Rep. Patrick Toomey (R-PA) that would have eliminated funding for several NIH grants focused on sexual health and behavior research:

"The National Institutes of Health is the world's premier research institution, and the peer-review process that NIH uses to make funding decisions is highly respected by scientists across the globe. NIH grants are awarded only to research proposals that scientific experts determine are of the highest merit.

"The Amendment offered today was an attempt to undermine the peer-review process. Decisions about medical research should be made by scientists, not by politicians promoting an ideological agenda."

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