What is Grassley looking for?

[ColbertWatcher]

From the Los Angeles Times
U.S. senator concerned about finances at UC San Francisco medical school
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has requested a detail of federal research funds the university has received in the last five years.
By James Oliphant
June 17, 2009

(...)

Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has requested that UCSF supply documentation on the amount of federal funds it has received during the last five years, including details of an external financial review performed by the accounting firm KPMG.

"If the financial integrity of UCSF is questionable," Grassley wrote in a letter to the university, "I am worried that similar problems regarding taxpayer dollars may also exist at other campuses within the UC system, such as UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Davis."

(...)

In 2008, UCSF received $444 million from the National Institutes of Health, with $383 million going directly to the medical school -- which placed it first among similar public institutions receiving NIH support. The school recently formed a task force to seek a large chunk of the $10.4 billion NIH received as part of the federal economic stimulus bill passed by Congress earlier this year.

(...)

Grassley's letter asked UCSF to detail the funds it has received in the last five years from NIH, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

--Los Angeles Times

In the article, Grassley hints that he is only doing this to assist the former dean of UCSF's medical school. But, I wonder if it really has to do with Grassley opposing UCSF's work with http://stemcell.taragana.net/archive/ucsf-wins-25-million-to-bring-top-stem-cell-researchers-under-one-roof/">stem cells.

Anyone have any idea what's going on?

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Kick. n/t