WASHINGTON -- The House handed a narrow defeat Thursday to conservatives who wanted to forbid the National Institutes of Health from giving grants to researchers conducting four sexual research projects, including studies of older men and of San Francisco's Asian prostitutes and masseuses.
The 212-210 vote derailed an effort led by Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to block the grants for next year, which are expected to total $1.4 million.
The debate recalled fights waged in Congress a decade ago over arts projects financed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Conservatives led by former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., argued that taxpayers should not finance objectionable works of arts, a controversy that resulted in the endowment revamping the way it decides which projects to back.
"I ask my colleagues, who thinks this stuff up?" Toomey said of the sexual research projects he singled out. "These are not worthy ... of taxpayer funds."
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