[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 112 (Tuesday, July 12, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4954-S4955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         CARA AND MILCON-VA AND ZIKA VIRUS FUNDING LEGISLATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the tortured explanation from my friend the 
Republican leader this morning about two important issues--opioids and 
Zika--is an indication of why the Republicans will no longer have the 
majority come election day. That is very clear. You can't go on doing 
what they are doing and expect people to support you.
  In the morning, we are going to vote on opioid legislation. It is 
important we do that. Everyone in this Chamber knows we have to do 
something to stop this epidemic. It has claimed the lives of too many 
Americans, and it is doing it every day. Our CARA conference report is 
a start, but it is a missed opportunity to do something really 
substantive to stem the number of opioid overdoses across the country, 
and the reason for that is Republicans refused to allocate money for 
this legislation.
  To have my friend talk about we have done twice as much as we did 
under the previous majority--why wasn't anything done before? Because 
it was filibustered. We couldn't do it. There is not enough money to do 
all the authorizing we have done for these programs. There is not 
enough money.
  In conference, Republicans again rejected our efforts to insert 
funding into the report. Authorizing legislation is a start, but 
without resources it is very meaningless. Without any real funding, the 
conference report comes up really short.
  For example, editorials around the country have said as much, and I 
will pick on one--the New York Times editorial board. This morning, in 
their piece entitled ``Congress Is Voting on an Inadequate Opioid 
Bill,'' they say:

       Congress is about to pass a bill meant to deal with the 
     nation's opioid epidemic. It contains some good ideas. It 
     will also be far less effective at saving lives than it 
     should be.
       The Senate is expected to vote on this measure, approved by 
     the House on Friday by an overwhelming 407-to-5 majority. It 
     would authorize addiction treatment and prevention programs 
     to stem what has become a scourge and a disgrace--more than 
     28,600 overdose deaths in 2014.

  And it has gotten worse, not better, but this legislation contains 
not a penny to support any of these initiatives.
  Continuing to read from the article:

       The bill would allow the federal government to award grants 
     to states to treat people who are hooked on prescription 
     painkillers and illicit drugs like heroin. In Congress, 
     however, getting a program authorized is only half the 
     battle. Republican leaders say they will allocate funding 
     when lawmakers return to Washington after a seven-week break 
     that begins at the end of this week and ends after Labor Day. 
     Yet there is no good reason for Congress to put off a vote on 
     funding, given the urgency of the problem.

  Quoting again, the editorial ends with a further funding caution:

       Many lawmakers, especially those who are up for reelection, 
     clearly want to show voters they are doing something about 
     opioids. This bill amounts to progress, but it will not 
     change the trajectory of this epidemic.

  That says it all.
  Without real funding, this legislation is far from adequate. If we 
want to stop the increasing number of opioid overdoses, then we need to 
get serious about finding a way to do it. One way is funding our 
Nation's response to this scourge.
  So I repeat, it is no wonder that there will be a change in the 
majority of this body with what went on, as evidenced by this morning's 
statement by my friend the Republican leader. To talk about a tortured 
explanation on Zika, the Zika problem we have in America today is 
significant. Last night, 39 new cases were reported in 1 day in 
America.
  These mosquitoes are ravaging--basically two breeds of mosquitoes are 
causing these problems. They are vicious. They are awful. Mosquitoes 
have been bad for generations, making people sick and causing people to 
die, but this is new. Never in the history of all the problems 
mosquitoes have caused have they caused birth defects. But they do now, 
and they do it big-time. The President is aware of the issue. He is 
aware of the issue. It is a very, very frightening thing for our 
country.
  In May, the Senate passed a bipartisan compromise to address this 
crisis. The bill wasn't perfect. The legislation called for $1.1 
billion in funding and was well short of the $1.9 billion health 
experts said was needed to address the crisis, but it was OK. It was 
certainly a step forward, and 89 Senators--Democrats and Republicans--
agreed it was a good step forward. The Senate compromise at the very 
least was a step in the right direction. That is why, in spite of our 
serious reservations about the lack of adequate funding, we voted for 
this legislation, and I am glad we

[[Page S4955]]

did. The overwhelming majority of Republicans voted for this bill, and 
I am glad they did. The Zika compromise passed, as I said, with 89 
votes. Only the most extreme, conservative Members of this body voted 
against it. That was 2 months ago. But since then, it has become 
increasingly clear in the last 2 months that Republicans are not 
serious. They are playing games again because they are not responding 
to the threat posed by these mosquitoes and by this horrible, horrible 
condition that they are causing for human beings.
  Instead of working to send the bill to the President's desk, the 
Republicans derailed the bipartisan response--89 Senators who voted--to 
send that to the House of Representatives. There was a conference. The 
Republicans chose a very reckless approach. They ignored what went on 
here in the Senate, even as more and more Americans are getting 
infected every day. There are almost 4,000 people in the United States 
and territories that have Zika right now. At least 600 pregnant women 
have shown evidence of infection. We don't know how many of those 
pregnant women who have this infection--this virus--are going to bear 
very, very sick babies. We don't know how many, but it is going to be a 
lot.
  We should be working to fight Zika. We should be working together. We 
should be providing public health experts with the tools they need to 
fight this virus. It is not being done, as the Republican leader says. 
In the Senate, we are stuck in limbo as the Republican leader forces an 
unnecessary revote on this failed proposal we got from the House of 
Representatives and approved by the Republicans in the Senate--this 
conference report. We don't need to vote on this again. It was already 
rejected. It will be rejected again. Why? For very good reasons.
  It is an abomination of a conference report. It restricts funding for 
birth control provided by Planned Parenthood. My friend talked about 
pregnant women. If we want to talk about pregnant women, we ought to 
talk about women who don't want to get pregnant. Where do they go? The 
vast majority of women in America go to Planned Parenthood. Millions 
go. This legislation that the Republicans are trying to foist on the 
American people stops them from being able to do that. It restricts 
funding for birth control provided by Planned Parenthood. Planned 
Parenthood is a whipping boy for the Republicans.
  This legislation also exempts pesticide spraying from the Clean Water 
Act. They had to get Planned Parenthood, and they had to do something 
to the environmental community. Here is what they are going to do to 
whack the environmental community: We will just not have the Clean 
Water Act apply.
  Veterans--my friend the Republican leader talks about veterans 
funding. Understand that the legislation being proposed to help fight 
Zika takes $500 million--one-half billion dollars--from the veterans 
program. That money was to be used for processing claims for veterans, 
which are way behind. We need that extra money. That is going to be 
gone.
  The so-called salvation of the Zika problem also rescinds $543 
million from ObamaCare. Right now, I could raise a point of order, and 
that would go. That would be gone. It rescinds $543 million from 
ObamaCare. They have to do this.
  They are so ideological: Let's go after Planned Parenthood; let's go 
after the environmental community; let's make sure we do something 
about ObamaCare; and, just for good measure, because Ebola is not an 
emergency this very second, let's take more money from that. Two years 
ago, Ebola was a big emergency, and it will be again. And, just for 
good measure, to satisfy the right-wing--as Speaker Boehner called 
them--crazies over there, they said: We will strike a provision on the 
Confederate flag that was in the House bill.
  How is that for an effort to do something constructive? We all know 
the Senate will not pass this Republican conference report. President 
Obama will not sign it into law. So why waste more time on this? We 
should pass the bipartisan Senate compromise as soon as possible. My 
friend said: Well, we can't amend the conference report. Of course, we 
can do anything here. With unanimous consent, we can do all kinds of 
good things.
  That is obviously the responsible path forward, and we need to get 
this legislation to the President's desk. In order to do that, we must 
bring the Zika compromise legislation before the Senate as a stand-
alone. I tried yesterday to do that. I asked unanimous consent that the 
Senate move to the compromise legislation and the Senate vote on that 
passage. But despite his previous support for this bipartisan 
legislation, the Republican leader objected. Senate Democrats are not 
going to be deterred.
  Is there a State in the Union that is going to suffer more than 
Florida? No. So the senior Senator from Florida is going to come to the 
floor in a little while this morning, and he is going to ask consent 
that the Senate proceed to the Zika compromise as a stand-alone bill. 
It can be done. We should do that. Florida has been hit really hard, 
and the worst is yet to come. Yesterday alone, as I indicated, there 
were new cases reported. According to the Palm Beach Post, that brings 
the number of Floridians--just Floridians--affected with Zika today to 
almost 300, including 43 pregnant women. So I hope they are going to 
consider the request by Senator Nelson. We are willing to work with 
Republicans to get this done. The Senate is going to adjourn for the 
long, 7-week vacation once we get this done.
  Our country is facing an emergency. It is time for the Republicans to 
start treating it as such. ``Opioids,'' ``Zika'' are only words from 
the Republicans. I repeat for the third time this morning, it is so 
clear why the Republicans are going to lose the majority in the U.S. 
Senate. All you have to do is listen to what the Republican leader had 
to say today.
  Will the Chair announce the business of the Senate this morning.

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