Funding changes could affect Kinsey

The U.S. House of Representatives passed two amendments late last week regarding federal aid for students and the institutions they attend in a process that led to the passage of a bill financing the U.S. Education Department and the National Institutes of Health for the 2005 fiscal year. \nThe first of the two amendments deals with closing a loophole in student aid -- providing aid to students directly rather than through lenders -- that lenders have taken advantage of to make profit from the government. Closing this loophole alone could potentially save the government up to $1 billion annually. \nThe second amendment, passed on a voice vote, eliminated funds to two federal research grants on mental health at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Missouri-Columbia. This amendment affects only the fiscal year, which begins in October. The grantees have already received the previous year's funding. \nIn a trend that began last year with the attempt to eliminate federal funding of five grants related to research on sexual activity, Congress has shown a willingness to eliminate funds to unorthodox-type research.\nIf Congress continues to apply federal aid cuts to research in academic settings, IU is bound to be affected. For instance, the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction could be affected by such financial adjustments since sexually related issues are being discussed by House members as "unorthodox," according to The Associated Press.\nThe Kinsey Institute received roughly $240,000 annually from the National Institutes of Health for one particular study researching people's emotions and their effect on sexual activity. Such research is important according to Jennifer Bass, the head of information services at the Kinsey Institute, because it educates therapists and patients about mental behavior.\nThis is in part because representatives would like serious topics, such as Alzheimer's disease studied so that they can, as Texas Republican, Rep. Randy Neugebauer commented to The Chronicle of Higher Education, "talk to Americans with mental-health issues ... and tell them we are committing (National Institutes of Health) funds to studying serious mental illnesses."\nNeugebauer will be facing another incumbent in the coming election. \nBass said it is up to panels of scientists to determine what small percentage of cases receive federal aid from the NIH and politicians are potentially posing a "threat to science and a threat to research." \nThe amendment regarding student loans legally allows lenders to exploit this money from the government since the government is responsible for the 6.1 percent difference in interest rates that students are not accountable for. Both President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry support the elimination of the loophole.\nThough the elimination of the loophole is an introduction at this point, it is "the right thing," according to the Republican leaders of the House Education Committee.\n-- Contact staff writer Claire Bartel at cebartel@indiana.edu.