House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Subcommittee on Health Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) have launched an investigation into the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) use of public relations and communications consulting services worth nearly $1,000,000,000, which they said in a release was a “spending spree.”

The Chairs began the probe by sending letters to 10 public relations companies that were the main contractors for NIH.

“Americans have been force fed a constant diet of Anthony Fauci propaganda since the onset of the pandemic. Given previous scrutiny of much smaller sums spent on public relations consultants, we feel it is appropriate and necessary to investigate why NIH has spent nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer funds on these services since 2018. We have an obligation to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t being spent to silence scientific debate or to promote personalities over effective public health campaigns. That requires a full accounting of every dollar spent,” said Chairs Rodgers, Griffith, and Guthrie.

The 10 firms are:
–  BETAH Associates
–  BLH Technologies
–  CSR, Incorporated
–  Fors Marsh Group
–  Hager Sharp
–  Hendall, Inc.
–  IQ Solutions
–  Lumina Corps (formerly NOVA Research Company)
–  Palladian Partners
–  Scientific Consulting Group

More here.