The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is scrambling to “justify” about 200 approved or funded projects to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce after being questioned about controversial research topics such as sexual behavior. In the past 3 weeks, NIH officials have pored over a list of awards drawn up by a conservative group and forwarded to NIH by a committee staffer, contacted grantees, and worked to allay lawmakers' qualms.

Behavioral researchers are particularly concerned.“Anything that identifies or targets individual investigators because of the subject matter of their research is unacceptable,” says Judith Auerbach of the American Foundation for AIDS Research. This is not the first time Congress has questioned research involving sexual behavior, says Alan Kraut, director of the American Psychological Society, but the scale seems unprecedented.“These are important areas of public health that have to be studied,” says Kraut.“I think there's reason to worry.”