[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 135 (Thursday, September 8, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5451-S5453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ZIKA VIRUS FUNDING

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise to voice my concern as an 
American and my outrage as a grandfather-to-be about the lack of action 
to fund our response to the Zika epidemic. Zika has come to Miami, FL, 
and Congress needs to step up and provide the necessary funds to fight 
this terrible virus.
  Zika is like any other national emergency, and we are a nation that 
always--always--responds to emergencies. While I am encouraged with the 
news that Republicans are seeing fit to do their job and drop some of 
the conditions in their Zika bill, which this body has voted down three 
times already, there is no excuse for any further delay--no excuse for 
doing nothing while Americans face a risk that we have the power to 
mitigate.

[[Page S5452]]

  The alarms have been ringing for months. We knew Zika wasn't coming, 
but instead of being proactive and prepared for what was about to hit 
our shores, Republicans in Congress chose to poison our response with 
rightwing ideological policy riders that prevented us from 
appropriately addressing this issue. To make matters worse, rather than 
removing these unacceptable provisions from the bill, they simply chose 
to ignore it entirely and send Congress on vacation without acting.
  Since that time, we have had at least 43 instances of locally 
acquired Zika in the Miami area and nearly 16,000 locally acquired 
cases in Puerto Rico. In the 50 United States, we now have 3,000 total 
cases, including those that were acquired outside of the country. Most 
frightening for families throughout our Nation is that we know of at 
least 1,751 cases of pregnant women infected with Zika--a truly 
devastating diagnosis for everyone involved.
  Today we have heard from the head of the National Institutes of 
Health's Infectious Disease Institute that without immediate funding, 
the current ongoing clinical trials into a Zika vaccine will be forced 
to shut down--putting a halt to any real chance we have of developing a 
preventive vaccine in the near term.
  We, as Democrats, have fought the opposition to pass the President's 
request for $1.9 billion to battle Zika. In May, the Senate, in a 
bipartisan compromise, agreed by a vote of 89 to 8 to fund $1.1 billion 
in response funding, but that bipartisan agreement was derailed in the 
House of Representatives, where Republicans insisted on adding a poison 
pill provision that had nothing to do with Zika and everything to do 
with seizing the opportunity to pursue an anti-family political social 
agenda that would prohibit family planning clinics from getting Zika 
funds--directly impacting the health of women in the most high-risk 
areas at a time that we know Zika can be contracted not only by a bite 
of a mosquito but by sexual intercourse.
  Every major health organization, from the Centers for Disease Control 
to the World Health Organization, to the American Congress of 
Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has recommended that the best course 
of action is to increase access to contraception and family planning 
services to decrease transmission of the virus.
  Today I call, once again, on the majority leader and the Speaker of 
the House to address this crisis now. Let's do our jobs and help keep 
the American people safe, healthy, and secure by addressing this crisis 
with everything we have and all we can provide to women and families 
who face an emergency situation no less important and no less 
threatening than tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, or superstorms such 
as Sandy.
  We need to quickly and decisively respond. We are already behind. We 
have lost critical time and sacrificed the progress we should have 
already made to political obstructionism that has prevented us from 
providing what we need to ensure maximum protection. We need to act 
now, not tomorrow, not the next day, not next week--now. But here we 
are 7 months after the President's original call for an emergency 
response to Zika and 5 months--long before Miami had become ground zero 
for the virus in the continental United States--5 months before the 
first confirmed cases of locally acquired transmission occurred and 
began to spread.
  My Republican colleagues talk a lot about national security, about 
defending this Nation and its people and I agree with them, but there 
are many ways to defend America from the many threats we face, and Zika 
is one of them. If we believe what we say about keeping America and 
Americans safe, then quickly passing the necessary funding to defeat 
Zika is in the personal security interest of the United States.
  We are dealing with a virus that has tremendous costs. We do not yet 
know all the potential birth defects that Zika can cause, and we do not 
know all the potential effects of microcephaly to a newborn or the life 
expectancy of a Zika baby, but the health care costs for the 31-year-
old mother in Hackensack, NJ, who gave birth to the first Zika baby 
born in the United States, will, no doubt, be staggering--in the 
millions of dollars.
  At the end of the day, protecting our people from an insidious virus 
that ultimately can affect the next generation that is being born is in 
fact protecting the public. In my mind, it is not acceptable to play 
politics with a national emergency. We can have all the debates in the 
world about family planning and access to women's health care, but we 
are delaying the possibilities of a vaccine being prepared, of mosquito 
abatement to limit the population of infected insects. We are denying 
care to those women who could be or are infected. We need to act now 
and pass the necessary funding just as we do in any national emergency, 
against any threat or any enemy, and Zika is a real and direct threat.

  I can talk from personal experience. It has affected my family and 
me. My daughter lives in Miami. She is now 6 months pregnant with her 
first child, and I am deeply concerned about her health, her well-being 
and the well-being of my first grandchild. While this moment is a 
moment of great joy, every young mother already has concerns about the 
normal course of events: Will my child be healthy? Will my child be 
safe and free from illness? These are normal concerns, but Zika adds a 
new dimension to those normal worries, and we could have done something 
to stop it if it were not for Republican obstructionism in the House. 
Shame on us that we have not done all we could to mitigate the fear 
that young mothers are feeling, and that fear is palpable. It cannot be 
ignored, not by me, not by any father, not by any grandfather, and it 
should not be ignored by Republicans in Congress. This isn't for me or 
my daughter. It is too late for her to take advantage of a vaccine or 
cure, but it is not too late for other mothers and their children 
across this country. How can we, in good conscience, not do all we can 
to attack this problem as best as we can?
  My daughter has taken precautions and is doing everything possible to 
protect herself, but this issue goes beyond the personal aspect of what 
is happening in my family, and while having a child is a moment of 
great joy, any woman who is pregnant in Miami--actually, in reality, 
this knows no limitations geographically. It will continue to spread 
across the country. It is an added risk that is very real and should be 
of deep concern to all of us.
  We want to protect our children. We talked about that in many 
different dimensions in different debates, whether it is about 
education or health care, and now we are doing something that every 
person who is a father or may be a grandfather understands very 
clearly. Every woman who serves in the Senate and has had a child 
understands very well the whole emotional process that goes on, like 
worrying about that child, taking care of themselves, having the right 
nutrition, and doing all the prenatal care they have to do so they can 
have a child who is born healthy.
  Women throughout the country are doing their best to protect 
themselves to the extent that they can, but not all of them have the 
ability to do something about it like those of us in this Chamber. It 
is our responsibility, obligation, and duty to act in the interest of 
every family who cannot do what we can by simply passing this 
legislation and doing it now.
  The alarms have been ringing for months. We knew Zika was coming, but 
instead of being proactive and prepared for what was about to hit our 
shores, Republican leaders in Congress chose to ignore the warning 
signs and adjourn Congress without acting. Now we are back and our 
Nation faces an emergency. We are here. There are no excuses. There is 
no political justification for inaction. At the end of the day, lives 
are at stake and we swore to protect every American. I call on my 
colleagues in both Chambers to put this nonsense aside, stop the 
pointless political posturing, and do your job.
  We are living in a political season that has devolved into a race to 
the bottom. Let's not participate in that race by letting the rigid, 
fundamentalist social agenda with the most extreme elements in our 
politics overrule common sense and shared values in the face of a 
crisis and danger to America.
  We know what is right. We know what we have to do, and now is the 
time to do it. It is with that hope that we break the shackles of this 
absurd political obstructionist chain that is holding us back from 
doing what is right and necessary.

[[Page S5453]]

  I look forward to next week--since it seems we will be out of session 
now--ultimately addressing the concerns that women and families have 
across this country. We hear a lot about the protection of the unborn. 
Well, this is the very essence of being able to protect the unborn from 
an insidious disease that can affect their lives forever.
  I hope the conscience of the Senate will ultimately move itself to 
its better judgment.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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