Millions in Stimulus Funds Used for Erectile Dysfunction Study

May 16, 2012 Updated May 16, 2012 at 9:17 AM PDT

This may not have been the type of "stimulus" feds intended.

Two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million were distributed to the University of California San Francisco, NBCBayArea.com has discovered. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone's sexual history.

And investigation by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit into who got federal stimulus dollars, and why some projects did not break ground more than two years after receiving the grant uncovered the grant.

The Investigative Unit looked closely at the federal government's decision to spend nearly $1.5 million of taxpayer money, money that came here to California.

Grant number 1R01HD056950-01A2 was among the thousands of grants funded, receiving $1.2 million. This grant studied how to improve the accuracy of how people responded to questions about their sexual history.

"I don't think most tax payers would think that would be a justified spending of stimulus money to conduct a sex study over fixing bridges and roads that are crumbling every day," said Scott Amey, the general council for POGO, the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington D.C. nonpartisan non-profit government watchdog group added.'

According to the grant, a good portion of the study will "Improve the accuracy of responses to questions," specifically questions about a person's sexual behavior.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit discovered that for $1.2 million, taxpayers funded a study that included 200 videotaped interviews at $6000 per interview.

Amey was also left questioning another UCSF grant. When asked by an NBC reporter about a study into erectile dysfunction involving overweight middle aged men he replied, "Oh boy."

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Millions in Stimulus Funds Used for Erectile Dysfunction Study