CONGRESS CUTS RESEARCH FUNDS

The Chronicle of Higher Education, the insiders' bible of universities and colleges across the nation, laments that federal funding for research grants is shrinking. In 1993, Congress doled out $763 million in mostly pork-barrel funding for such grants, but only $299 million this year.

A review of grants that have been funded show one of the reasons for the cuts. Many of the projects intended for funding are questionable at best. In fact, in many cases it appears the grants are more in the line of supplemental income for adept grant writers than anything else.

Schools in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, Louisiana and Hawaii receive the lion's share of the grant funding this year. Guess where the ranking members of the congressional appropriations committees are from.