[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 66 (Thursday, April 28, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2508-S2509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               ZIKA VIRUS

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there are already nearly 900 cases of the 
Zika virus in the United States and its 3 territories, including 
actually 2 confirmed cases in my home State of Washington. A recent 
survey showed that 40 percent of adults in our country see this virus 
as a reason to delay starting families. Those are disturbing 
statistics. They make it clear that the Zika virus is a public health 
emergency, and there is no good reason for the delay we are seeing from 
our Republican colleagues in addressing this.
  Months ago, the administration put forward the strong proposal that 
Senator Reid introduced today. Republicans refused at the time to even 
consider it, and I am disappointed again this morning that they weighed 
in on the side of further delay rather than acting on this. As a 
result, we are getting closer to the summer and to mosquito season, but 
we still here in this body have not moved on emergency supplemental 
funding that would put much needed resources into preventing and 
treating this frightening virus.
  Too many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle still don't 
seem to see Zika as an emergency. Some Republicans are insisting we 
shouldn't give the administration a penny in additional funding to 
support the response we need to make. Others are saying that action on 
Zika can wait--wait for weeks or months. Republicans in Congress might 
be able to simply wait, but families across this country cannot.
  Addressing this Zika virus shouldn't be controversial. With women's 
and children's health and well-being on the line, it certainly should 
not be a place for partisanship.
  Democrats are at the table. We want to get this done as soon as 
possible. In fact, as recently as a few days ago I was hopeful 
Republicans were truly interested in working with us to get this done 
and to be able to find an actual path forward. We had some good 
conversations last week. But I am worried that in the last few days it 
has become clear once again that the extreme right, like the Heritage 
Foundation, is in control, and Republican leaders have been unable to 
demonstrate to this point a path on how we can get a bipartisan deal 
signed into law. This issue is far too important to have Republican 
infighting hold it up. So I urge my Republican colleagues to join us. 
We are ready to be at the table to work with them. We need to address 
this as an emergency.
  Then I hope we can move on to work on the other really critical 
issues before us: the opioid epidemic that so many have been here to 
talk about; the families in Flint who are suffering; ensuring our 
Supreme Court nominee gets a fair consideration--a hearing, even. There 
is so much work to be done.
  I am here to urge our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to 
recognize this is an emergency. It cannot wait. Families are waiting 
for us to act. We need to get the research. We need to have an 
understanding of what this disease is. We certainly need to put into 
place prevention, and we certainly need to work on the important path 
forward in making sure we have the right kinds of education out there 
as well as a solution to this problem that is rapidly becoming an 
American problem.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, if this isn't an emergency, then I don't 
know what is. Zika is a public health emergency. It defines a public 
health emergency, and we really have to act now to fund the 
administration's full $1.9 billion supplemental funding request.
  I want to respond to the assistant majority leader's concerns that 
there is no plan. With due respect--and I know he is working hard on 
this as well--that is just not accurate. The legislation propounded by 
Senators Nelson and others has a very specific plan. I was fortunate 
enough to visit the headquarters for the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention in Atlanta. They have a very specific plan. It is vector 
controlled. It is developing the diagnostic tests necessary to figure 
out whether or not people are carriers of the Zika virus. It is working 
on a vaccine. They have a high degree of confidence that they are 
eventually going to get a vaccine. But this takes time, and this takes 
resources. It is public health outreach regarding mosquitos and how 
this is transmitted, and it is assurance regarding the safety of our 
blood supply. So they have a plan.
  Let me be a little more specific: $743 million for CDC--this money 
would include grants and technical assistance to Puerto Rico and the 
U.S. territories and help our domestic and international response 
activities; about $250 million for the Centers for Medicare and 
Medicaid, or CMS, to increase the Federal match rate to Puerto Rico 
where there have been 500 active transmission cases--and, 
unfortunately, that number continues to go up; several hundred million 
dollars for the National Institutes of Health and BARDA to invest in 
vaccine research and development. That is the end game, but in the 
meantime, we have to prevent the transmission as our country warms up 
and as the mosquitos become more prevalent across the country with $10 
million to the FDA for a vaccine and diagnostics development review and 
$335 million to USAID's efforts abroad to support affected countries' 
public health efforts on mosquito-borne diseases.
  I will make a couple of specific procedural points. As a member of 
the Appropriations Committee, I believe it is really important that we 
are trying to move in the regular order on each individual 
Appropriations subcommittee.

[[Page S2509]]

We have been working on a bipartisan basis. So we are trying to move in 
the regular order, and that is good news. We are moving a little more 
quickly than I think has been done in many years. That is good news. 
But the practical fact of that also means that we are not in the middle 
of working on legislation that must be passed by today or must be 
passed by next week because whatever we do--whether it is the Energy 
and Water title, whether it is THUD coming next, maybe MILCON-VA after, 
whatever it may be--we are going to be waiting for the House to act, 
and we are going to be conferencing. It is not at all clear when we 
will actually move appropriations measures to the President's desk, but 
it is fair to say those things are not exactly legislatively on fire. 
We could wait 2 or 3 legislative days. We could wait 2 or 3 legislative 
weeks. We are ahead of the game. That is not to say we don't have our 
own challenges with each of these individual appropriations measures, 
but this defines an emergency. This defines an emergency. This is an 
actual public health emergency, which means the idea of a pay-for for 
this is antithetical to the way we ought to work. This is what 
government does.
  Whatever your political persuasion, whatever your ideology is about 
the size and scope of the Federal Government, I think we can all agree 
that the most basic responsibility of the Federal Government is to keep 
us all safe. This is a real risk. This is not an imaginary risk, this 
is not a trumped-up risk, and this is not a partisan thing. If you talk 
to the CDC, if you talk to your local departments of health, vector 
controls, mosquito control areas--talk to them. They are very nervous, 
and it is increasing. The only reason this hasn't totally popped both 
epidemiologically and politically is that it is still cold in a lot of 
places and mosquitos aren't out. This is a real emergency. There is no 
reason we shouldn't be taking this up as the emergency starts to 
happen. There is no reason we can't take a couple legislative days to 
deal with that.
  To address the senior Senator from Texas, the assistant majority 
leader's questions about whether the plan addresses his concerns about 
accountability, about the ability to move money from one account to the 
other, about backfilling the Ebola funding--fine. Those are all 
legitimate questions, and I think they can all be addressed.
  But here is my question: Why not get on the bill? Why object to a UC 
request that we get on the bill? All of those questions can be 
addressed on the floor or in committee or in conversation. There are 
many ways to address those questions. But the refusal to even 
acknowledge that this matter is sufficiently urgent that it should be 
the thing we are dealing with right now, that THUD could wait a week, 
and that whatever we are planning to do next is not quite as urgent as 
the Zika virus--that is the point we are making today. Not that there 
isn't going to be some legislative wrangling and not that we are 
supposing that the President's request is exactly perfect, it is just 
that this is a real emergency, and we ought to get this thing onto the 
floor so we can take some action. That is what we have to do.
  I know the Senator from Missouri is working very hard on this. I know 
others are too. We don't want this to be a partisan issue either. But 
to object to a request to get on this bill fails to acknowledge what a 
serious public health emergency the Zika virus is.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I came to the floor today to talk about 
another issue, and I will talk about the issue I had scheduled to talk 
about earlier this week. But in regard to the issue of Zika, it does 
need to be dealt with. It is being dealt with.
  The good news is that there was substantial money various departments 
had that could be reprogrammed, and the fact that they have 
reprogrammed it indicates to me that there is a genuine belief in the 
administration, which I share, that this is an emergency. Over half a 
billion dollars has already been reprogrammed to deal with that 
emergency. I believe some of that reprogramming money needs to be 
restored, and some of it probably doesn't. The Ebola crisis is not what 
we thought it might be in Africa, but it is still in existence there. I 
think some of that money needs to go back into the accounts it had been 
reprogrammed out of.
  But if anybody listening to this debate believes that nothing is 
happening, that is not accurate. I do appreciate my friend from Florida 
recognizing that a lot of discussions are going on. I was in several 
this week, and some yesterday with House Members and Senate Members.
  The House could pass a bill first. That may or may not happen, but 
what really needs to happen is a bill that gets on the President's 
desk. I think there is almost no chance the Senate would pass a $1.9 
billion bill as proposed. The best place to debate that could be the 
Senate floor for several days or it could be to work on a bill that 
could come to the floor quickly, go to the House, and be passed by the 
House. If there were a slim chance that the Senate could pass the bill 
we have been talking about--the bill as proposed that would spend $1.9 
billion, in big hundred-million dollar chunks, which we talk about as 
if that is no money at all and is somehow a plan--that in all 
likelihood wouldn't pass the Senate, and I am absolutely sure it 
wouldn't pass the House. What would we have gained? This is something 
we need to work out. We can work it out. I believe we will work it out.
  The goal is not for the Senate to pass a bill. The goal is for the 
Congress to pass a bill and the President of the United States to sign 
that bill. I believe that will happen. Many people, including me, are 
working to see that happens. The majority leader knows that, and others 
who have spoken today reflect the fact that they know those discussions 
are going on.

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