Texas governor asks cancer agency to halt grants
(AP)—Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked the embattled Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to stop giving grants until concerns about the beleaguered agency are resolved.
The institute controls the nation's second-largest pot of cancer research dollars, behind the federal National Institutes of Health.
It was founded in 2009 with an unprecedented $3 billion in state money and promises of cancer breakthroughs. But a criminal investigation, widespread criticism from scientists and the resignations of agency officials amid suggestions of politics and personal profit have come faster than medical discoveries.
Perry made his request Wednesday in a letter to the cancer agency's oversight committee. He was joined by the lieutenant governor and House speaker.
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