The Hearing
The acting director of the NIH, Lawrence Tabak, DDS PhD, defended a program that granted millions of dollars to Universities, some of whom have a policy of giving low scores to faculty candidates that express a belief in racial equality, when questioned by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). The exchange took place on May 4, during a Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Appropriations) hearing entitled: “A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Request and Budget Justification for the National Institutes of Health“
The NIH program is the Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation and was created in 2020. According to Sen. Kennedy, the NIH has granted $341 million to 12 institutions, including the University of New Mexico and the University of South Carolina. Kennedy singled the two institutions out for their policy of “giving an F” to job applicants that express a belief in racial equality. NIH grantees were to use the money to “demonstrate a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion excellence.”
Kennedy specified that the University of South Carolina was to use the grant to hire faculty members in public health and nursing. The University of New Mexico was to use the grant to hire faculty in neuroscience and data science. Both institutions “issued rules to administer the money,” which included the intent to “punish candidates who apply for jobs with us, with this money,…who espouse “race neutrality”” Kennedy further stated that the institutions would give a “low score for everyone who states “an intention to ignore the varying background of their students and treat everyone the same.”
Kennedy asked Tabak if he was aware of those policies, that was using tax payer money to discriminate against people who think equality is actually a good thing. Tabak expressed ignorance of the “specifics” that Kennedy described, but then strangely went on to defend not just the grant program, but seemingly the policies of the institutions themselves as well.
Diversity! Equity! Inclusion! is the battle cry of the New Idiocracy.
Watch the entire exchange below.