{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sen-rand-paul-uncovers-50000000-nih-grant-studying-peoples-fondness-spicy-foods/", "Sen. Rand Paul Uncovers $500,000.00 NIH Grant Studying People\u2019s Fondness for Spicy Foods", "2016-06-21", "2016", "2016-06", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the latest edition of \u2018The Waste Report,\u2019 which is an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government.\n\nIn the latest edition, Sen. Paul uncovers the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending $500,000.00 to study people\u2019s rejection threshold for spice and bitterness.\n\n\u201cOur government is spending funds like drunken sailors, but at least sailors spend their own money. This is taxpayer money that is just being wasted! No matter what the result from these wasteful studies, one thing is clear, they leave a bitter taste in taxpayer\u2019s mouths\u201d Stated Senator Paul.\n\n\u2018The Waste Report\u2019 can be found below.\n\nSince 2011, one researcher at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) has received approximately half a million dollars to study people\u2019s rejection threshold for spice and bitterness. The study found people seeking sensation like spice, but generally personality has no relation to liking spicy foods.\n\nA paper associated with this study explored the correlation between one\u2019s personality and their affinity for spicy foods. Surprisingly, the same paper discovered that \u201cas expected, a strong relationship was found between liking spicy foods and frequency of chili consumption.\u201d\n\nAdditionally, similar egregious studies have been uncovered by the office of Senator Rand Paul. One such study sought to determine what level of bitterness was objectionable for chocolate milk consumers. The result: People with a preference for dark chocolate are able to tolerate 2.3 times more bitterness than those who prefer milk chocolate. A third, and also separate study explored the bitterness in wine and how one\u2019s wine expertise predicts willingness to try new wines and foods.\n\nThe combined cost for all of these studies? Taxation from nearly 70 average Americans working for an entire calendar year.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:54:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sen-rand-paul-uncovers-50000000-nih-grant-studying-peoples-fondness-spicy-foods/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8221450261771679, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}