Lawmaker Says NIH May Be After Whistleblowers

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Lawmaker Says NIH May Be After Workers

By ANDREW BRIDGES
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employees of one of the National Institutes of Health are being asked to report all contacts with Congress - a request that one lawmaker suspects is an attempt to flush out would-be whistle-blowers.

Managers distributed "record of congressional inquiry" forms to employees of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the NIH. At least one of those workers reported being made "nervous" by the form - and forwarded it to congressional investigators probing allegations of conflicts of interest, excessive spending and other management issues at the institute.

Separately, the NIH is beginning its own review of the management and leadership of the institute, NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni announced Monday. The embattled director of the institute, Dr. David Schwartz, is stepping aside for the duration of the review.

The form asks for details of each telephone call from the offices of members of the House or Senate, including on the information sought. Logging and reporting such calls is standard procedure in the congressional affairs offices of federal departments and agencies. But the forms don't appear to be something given out to "regular" employees, said Sen. Charles Grassley. Their distribution came in the midst of multiple and ongoing investigations by Congress, including by the Iowa Republican's staff. Nor do the forms appear to have been distributed elsewhere within NIH.

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