WASHINGTON - May 31, 2011 – In a new report issued Thursday, the Senate's top watchdog on government waste said taxpayer money has gone to fund such programs as Jell-O wrestling at the South Pole, testing shrimp's exercise ability on a treadmill, and a laundry-folding robot, all funded by the National Science Foundation.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he identified more than $3 billion in mismanagement at NSF, ranging from questionable studies to exorbitant operating costs, and in some cases duplication by the science agency of operations performed by other agencies.
At a time when the federal government is struggling with record deficits and bumping up against its borrowing limit, Senator Coburn said the agency is a prime example of the kinds of spending taxpayers should no longer tolerate.
"There is little, if any, obvious scientific benefit to some NSF projects, such as a YouTube rap video, a robot hoedown and rodeo, or a virtual recreation of the 1964/65 New York World's Fair," Senator Coburn said in a letter to taxpayers he wrote introducing the 73-page report, documented by more than 350 footnotes.
In one instance NSF employees, in their spare time, engaged in a Jell-O wrestling contest at the agency's McMurdo research station at the South Pole. In another case, the agency paid $559,681 to test sick shrimp's metabolism, which one researcher said was "the first time that shrimp have been exercised on a treadmill."
Senator Coburn's report noted that the researchers found sick shrimp "did not perform as well and did not recover as well from exercise as healthy shrimp."
An NSF spokeswoman said agency officials have a "gold-standard approach to peer review" for the projects on which they spend money.
"While no agency is without flaws, NSF has been diligent about addressing concerns from members of Congress about workforce and grant management issues, and NSF's excellent record of tracking down waste and prosecuting wrongdoing is apparent from Senator Coburn's report," said Dana Topousis, spokeswoman for the Foundation. "We believe that no other funding agency in the world comes close to NSF for giving taxpayers the best return on their investment."
Senator Coburn's report makes clear that the agency itself cracked down on some problems, including firing the organizer of the South Pole Jell-O wrestling event. In a letter after his dismissal, the dismissed employee complained of "fun nazis" who had clamped down on him.
The agency has an annual budget of $6.9 billion, and accounts for about one-fifth of all national taxpayer-funded research at colleges and universities.
