GOP ACCUSED OF CREATING HEALTH FUND 'HIT LIST'

WASHINGTON - Republican members of Congress are trying to subvert
research on HIV and AIDS with a "hit list" of more than 150 scientists
who receive federal support, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., charged yesterday.

Waxman called the list "scientific McCarthyism" that represents an
attempt to impose "ideological shackles" on the researchers.

An aide said Waxman got the list from sources at the National
Institutes of Health, which funds the scientists. The aide said
Republicans in Congress had provided it to NIH.

NIH spokesman John Burklow said his agency simply was responding to a
request from Republican lawmakers who had a list - compiled by the
Washington-based Traditional Values Coalition - of 157 researchers
with NIH grants. Their projects include studying subjects such as
teenagers' sexual activity, sex and drug use among truckers and
sexually transmitted diseases among Mexican immigrants.

Burklow said the calls were not intended to threaten researchers that
they could lose their funding but to inform them that their names were
on a list being circulated in Washington.

He said officials also were trying to put the research into the
context of the agency's "scientific mission."

One researcher, Dr. Liana Clark of Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia, said NIH asked her last week to describe the usefulness
of her study of teenagers' misconceptions about birth control.

"I just keep thinking that this is a bad nightmare and I'm actually
going to wake up from all this," said Clark, a physician whose
$300,000 grant also helped her earn an advanced degree.

Clark said she is reconsidering her decision to seek another grant to
study whether fears about being unable to get pregnant in the future
discourage women from using birth control now. "I'm concerned because
if politics is going to play a role in this, how can I go there?" Clark said.

An aide to Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., said conservative House
Republicans are concerned about why some grants are approved by NIH
while other projects dealing with such things as cancer and
Alzheimer's disease are left unfunded.

However, the aide, Derrick Kerchner, said he knew nothing about the
list released by Waxman.

The Traditional Values Coalition commented on several studies,
including one by a Michigan researcher about teenagers' sexual and
mental health. The comments read: "Promotes a 'sex positive' attitude
among teens; endorses sexual behavior and condom use among teens."

Andrea Lafferty, the coalition's executive director, who brought her
concerns to Rep. Billy Tauzin, D-La., called the grants a "total abuse
of taxpayer dollars."

"We know for a fact that millions and millions of dollars have been
flushed down the toilet over years on this HIV, AIDS scam and sham,"
Lafferty said. "We know what it takes to prevent getting the disease.
It takes not engaging in risky sexual behaviors."