[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 114 (Thursday, July 14, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5113-S5114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ZIKA VIRUS FUNDING BILL

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I wish to talk about the urgent need 
to provide full funding for our response to the Zika virus. Nearly 5 
months ago, on February 22, President Obama submitted a request to 
Congress for $1.9 billion in emergency supplemental funding to address 
the growing Zika epidemic. The request included $1.509 billion for the 
Department of Health and Human Services, HHS; $335 million for the U.S. 
Agency for International Development, USAID; $41 million for the 
Department of State; and support for several other Federal agencies.
  The administration's plan--which has the full weight of the 
scientific community behind it--represents a coordinated and well-
funded, whole-of-government approach to combating the virus with a 
focus on prevention, treatment, and research.
  But instead of listening to the experts, Republicans choose instead 
to abide by a partisan agenda: offering a Zika conference report that 
underfunded critical Federal, State, and global response efforts by 
more than $800 million, and included poisonous policy riders and pay-
fors that gratuitously attacked the Affordable Care Act, the safety of 
our Nation's drinking water, and women's reproductive rights. The 
Senate rejected the Zika conference report and rightfully so.
  The Republican leadership particularly in the House seem to be 
forgetting that the Zika virus is a mosquito-borne disease that has a 
real, devastating impacts on women and their babies. There have been 
over 1,100 travel-associated Zika cases reported in the continental 
United States, including 31 in my home State of Maryland and 2,474 
locally acquired cases across the U.S. territories. Because of Zika, 
babies are being born in the United States and throughout Central and 
South America with horrible birth defects. To date, more than 600 
pregnant women in the continental U.S. and the territories are being 
monitored following laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus 
infection, according to the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry.
  Without congressional action to fund our response to the Zika 
epidemic adequately, the efforts to better understand and combat this 
disease will be derailed. According to Dr. Tony Fauci, the Nation's 
leading infectious disease expert and Director of the National 
Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, NIAID, ``The vaccine effort 
will be blunted if not aborted if we don't have the funding.''
  Dr. Fauci also emphasized that other vital HHS and NIH programs will 
suffer if the agency is forced to focus funding primarily on vaccine 
development. The NIAID has already diverted funds from malaria and 
tuberculosis research to fund Zika efforts. It is unconscionable that 
the Republican leadership is forcing our public health officials to 
make these kinds of decisions.
  State and local health departments also bear the brunt of the 
consequences of not fully funding our Zika response efforts. Our 
Nation's health departments are on the front lines of combating this 
disease, working on a grassroots level to expand and enhance prevention 
efforts, including mosquito surveillance and control; promoting 
culturally conscious education campaigns to raise public awareness; and 
equipping our health care workforce with the most medically accurate 
guidelines to help patients make informed decisions about their health 
care.
  Zika will not simply disappear without adequate funding. Congress 
must pass an adequate and clean Zika funding bill. Leaving Washington, 
DC, for the summer recess without sufficiently funding Zika response 
efforts is irresponsible and does an incredible disservice to the 
American people.
  Neglecting to pass an appropriate Zika response bill is a failure to 
expectant mothers who have growing concerns about the lasting impact a 
mosquito bite this summer could have on the health of their unborn 
children; it is a failure to the ambitious U.S. athletes who are 
considering sidelining their dreams of Olympic glory over the fear of 
contracting the virus; and it is a failure to the millions of Americans 
who entrust us to do everything in our power to safeguard their health 
and well-being. Although we should not incite panic about Zika, the 
seriousness of this problem is too great to be ignored. If we expect to 
make adequate progress on combating this virus this year--and if we 
want to protect the health and welfare of all Americans--Congress must 
pass a clean, well-resourced Zika funding bill without delay.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  Mr. McCAIN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Utah (Mr. Lee).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Minnesota (Mr. Franken) 
and the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 85, nays 12, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 132 Leg.]

                                YEAS--85

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Lankford
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Vitter
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker

[[Page S5114]]


  


                                NAYS--12

     Boxer
     Gillibrand
     Heller
     Leahy
     Markey
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Paul
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Warren
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Franken
     Klobuchar
     Lee
  The motion was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________