[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 13, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5342-H5343]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ZIKA IS A REAL THREAT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, it is almost as if the majority would 
prefer to go into the final stretch of the election season with fresh 
reminders of how dysfunctional things have become.
  No action on commonsense gun control measures, no action on 
immigration or climate change, no action on the Zika virus that is 
taking a huge toll in the United States and Puerto Rico and is poised 
to take an even bigger one.
  Congress is still in denial that Zika is a real threat and that the 
next generation of children could be exposed to the disease with 
dangerous and debilitating birth defects. It is hard for me to 
articulate this out loud, but, in just a few weeks, the first group of 
children born with brain development and physical problems associated 
with the disease will be born in Puerto Rico.
  We are looking at more than 15,000 reported cases of Zika in Puerto 
Rico and more than 2,000 pregnant women. At the current pace, Zika will 
infect a quarter of the island in the next year. This is the first 
mosquito-borne disease that successfully infects children in the womb 
through the placenta. It can be sexually transmitted. Humans give Zika 
to mosquitoes and then go on to infect other humans.
  And Congress has the same response it has to almost everything--
nothing. In this case, nothing flavored with a little partisan 
posturing over abortion in an election year. The issue for some people 
seems to be that we can fund research, prevention, and treatment as 
long as one of the most important proven and effective healthcare 
delivery mechanisms for women is excluded because Planned Parenthood is 
on the Republican hit list.
  No matter that funding Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico or anywhere 
else would be the prudent use of Federal funds if our goal is to 
prevent the spread of disease and prevent--that is prevent, not 
terminate--unwanted pregnancies during this crisis. Politics and 
elections always seem to trump good, sensible policies.
  So nothing yet from Congress, despite the pleas from the Obama 
administration, the CDC, and the American people. But Congress is not 
the only place in denial about Zika.
  Having spent time talking to people on the island of Puerto Rico, the 
people are also complacent about this disease and the impact it will 
have. Many suspect that it is all hype from Washington and yet another 
crisis to give the United States more control over the island of Puerto 
Rico.
  Given the island's history, the point of view is not unreasonable 
that Congress just appointed an unelected control board, or junta, to 
take control of the island's government and finances.
  For decades, the United States used Puerto Rico, and especially the 
island of Vieques, for target practice for our military. And for more 
than a decade, the United States has been denying the health and 
environmental impact of that bombing, including cancer and other 
diseases that people on the island know are real because their 
relatives are dying. And back in my mother's day, in the 1950s and the 
1960s, family planning that came from the United States was forced 
sterilization.
  So I understand why people are skeptical when so far it has been hard 
to demonstrate the consequences of the Zika virus and how it could make 
life any worse than it already is. But, again, in just a few weeks, 
when we see children born with mental and physical impairments, it will 
become clear that Zika is real.
  Puerto Rico must rise to the challenge presented by Zika and bridge 
the deep ocean of distrust between the Puerto Rican people and the 
United States. That is why I spent a lot of my time over the past month 
meeting with public health experts, doctors, and scientists. Every one 
of them was Puerto Rican, not people sent from the U.S. Puerto Rico 
needs an integrated, comprehensive mosquito vector control center that 
Puerto Ricans are coming together to discuss, so it can be created 
quickly.

                              {time}  1015

  This is the mosquito tracking eradication that is deployed when a 
disease is detected so that resources can be concentrated on a 
neighborhood or city if an infectious disease like Zika is present. You 
saw it work in Miami.
  Puerto Rico does not have access to contraception that you would 
expect in the 21st century, but Puerto Rican doctors, gynecologists, 
scientists, and experts are also strategizing about how to make modern, 
effective, reversible family planning more widely available so that 
women can delay pregnancy.
  But while Puerto Ricans can drive the process of addressing Zika in 
Puerto Rico--and this will lead to much

[[Page H5343]]

greater acceptance of those strategies by the Puerto Rican people and 
greater success in the long run--that does not get Congress off the 
hook.
  Puerto Rico, like the United States, needs this Congress to fund the 
President's request for funding and also for the Federal Government to 
do its job. In Puerto Rico, this includes the Environmental Protection 
Agency addressing toxic landfills that dot the island, which are 
breeding grounds for mosquitos but have been overlooked by the EPA.
  A generation of children in Puerto Rico and all over the United State 
are counting on the U.S. Congress to protect them from the Zika virus, 
and I hope this Congress puts politics aside and rises to the occasion. 
They are American citizens on the island of Puerto Rico. They will be 
coming to the United States when they need health care.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the op-ed piece I wrote for The 
Hill newspaper on Zika and Puerto Rico.

                            [Sept. 12, 2016]

              U.S. and Puerto Rico Must Cooperate on Zika

                      (By Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez)

       The rapid spread of the Zika virus in Puerto Rico is a 
     very, very big problem for the U.S. and Puerto Rico but the 
     colonial relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico is 
     making it a lot worse. The reason this matter is so important 
     to the United States--beyond the obvious concern for the 
     well-being of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico, of course--
     is that thousands of U.S. tourists and visitors go back and 
     forth to Puerto Rico and thousands of Puerto Ricans leave the 
     Island permanently for life in the U.S., driven out by the 
     financial crisis gripping the Island. Zika is the first 
     mosquito-borne virus known to cause birth-defects and to be 
     sexually transmitted, so an outbreak of the magnitude that 
     has already hit Puerto Rico is a public health crisis for the 
     United States as well.
       If you talk to average Puerto Ricans on the Island as I 
     often do, they are not experiencing Zika as a big issue. They 
     do not think the threat is real. Most people who are infected 
     feel no symptoms and the negative consequences only affects 
     pregnant women--or so most people think. Puerto Ricans, 
     having lived with mosquito transmitted diseases for decades, 
     have become immune to dire warnings from so-called experts 
     and some are resigned to the false notion that nothing can be 
     done.
       Even with 13,791 cases reported, an estimated 2,000 
     pregnant women already infected and a disease trajectory that 
     indicates 20-25% of the population will be affected this 
     year, Puerto Rico has resisted guidance or help coming from 
     Washington.
       Why? The colonial attitude of the U.S. towards Puerto Rico 
     and the understandable response to such treatment effects the 
     psyche of the population. A half-century of Navy target 
     practice bombing on the inhabited Island of Vieques (among 
     other places in and around Puerto Rico) was followed by 
     decades of U.S. government denials that cancers and 
     environmental destruction in Vieques were connected to the 
     U.S. government's actions. History is informative: Previous 
     public health interventions from Washington included forced 
     sterilization of women of my mother's generation. This 
     treatment as second-class (at best) citizens of the United 
     States deeply impacts the Puerto Rican psyche, with long term 
     effects. And this is helping Zika spread.
       Now, a control board imposed by the U.S. government through 
     Congress' PROMESA legislation is preparing to take over 
     decision-making that will determine the future of all Puerto 
     Ricans living on the Island. Distrust of Washington is at an 
     all-time high in Puerto Rico, based on my observations.
       And unfortunately, this is making it harder for health 
     officials to do what needs to be done to control the Zika 
     outbreak. Unlike in Miami, Florida, there was a swift and 
     sharp backlash from Puerto Ricans when the idea of spraying 
     Naled--an insecticide--was raised. The CDC (Centers for 
     Disease Control and Prevention) sent a shipment to the Island 
     in anticipation of the Island requesting help, but the 
     backlash in local media ranged from basic environmental 
     concerns all the way up to elaborate conspiracy theories that 
     a fictitious colonial genocide of the Puerto Rican people was 
     at hand.
       In reality, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden has personally 
     assured me that Naled is a pesticide used widely for a long 
     time--including in Miami and other U.S. cities--with very few 
     consequences for people. The consequences for the environment 
     and other insects--including bees--can be minimized through 
     sensible application of Naled. But, in this era of deep 
     distrust, none of the facts are reassuring to Puerto Ricans. 
     The Naled shipment, if it is still in Puerto Rico, remains 
     unused. Due to years of random unchecked chemical pesticide 
     use by private providers, mosquitos in Puerto Rico are highly 
     resistant to common chemical strategies. Naled was one of the 
     only effective options currently available. Mosquitos breed 
     quickly, bite quietly and thrive in urban and rural areas--
     sometimes hitting four or five people in a single meal--so 
     the spread of the disease in Puerto Rico is happening 
     astonishingly quickly.
       Part of the problem can be addressed if the CDC and Puerto 
     Rico work together to build on the success they have had in 
     addressing the Dengue Fever virus, another mosquito-borne 
     disease that--like Chikungunya--has hit Puerto Rico hard. The 
     CDC scientists have provided research and resources to combat 
     Dengue for over 35 years.
       An important first step would be for Puerto Rico to create 
     an integrated, comprehensive mosquito control center, but 
     given the financial crisis in Puerto Rico, this will only 
     happen if the federal government funds it and the Puerto 
     Rican people accept it. A group of international and local 
     technical experts in vector control management met in San 
     Juan in May of 2016 and came to this same conclusion. The 
     potential to control and eliminate the Zika-carrying mosquito 
     from Puerto Rico is possible with a well-funded mosquito 
     control center that implements an integrated comprehensive 
     vector management approach using safe, effective and 
     innovative strategies. Miami and every major U.S. 
     jurisdiction has a vector control unit and Miami's sprang 
     into action to address the outbreak there, including spraying 
     with Naled. Such a unit provides the infrastructure and 
     expertise to address an outbreak like Zika, manage its 
     spread, and is constantly working to provide protection from 
     mosquitoes that cause diseases like Dengue and Chilcungunya, 
     which are endemic in Puerto Rico.
       The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could help by 
     addressing the crisis of more than two dozen toxic municipal 
     landfills that seem to be flying under EPA's radar. These are 
     breeding grounds for mosquitos and the Island's government 
     needs help to address these hazards, as I and others have 
     noted to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
       This must be combined with an investment to address the 
     immediate needs of those infected and to help women avoid or 
     delay pregnancy. Access to modern, effective, reversible 
     birth control has been late in coming to the public health 
     system in Puerto Rico, but access is growing. Women's 
     reproductive health is a critical need, but for Republicans 
     in Congress, contraception and women's health care are 
     lightning rods that tend to induce divisiveness or paralysis 
     or both.
       The most important thing Congress can do is stop squabbling 
     and fund the President's request for a national strategy to 
     fight Zika, which would include funding to help Puerto Rico 
     address the 17 disease at ground zero. Doing nothing is what 
     this Congress is good at, but there comes a time when 
     Republican leaders need to put their country before their 
     party--even in an election year--and let the resources and 
     experts of the federal government fight this disease.
       Let us prevent as best we can an outbreak that will be 
     tremendously costly in lives and hardship in the decades to 
     come. Congress must act now. The CDC must be allowed to act 
     now. The next generation, the future of Puerto Rico, is 
     likely to be born with reduced brain capacity, birth defects 
     and a range of developmental disabilities. Let's face it, in 
     the arena of evolution--the mosquitos are winning. Puerto 
     Rico--and Puerto Ricans--must understand how serious this 
     really is and address it aggressively with all tools at their 
     disposal, including help from the federal government. We need 
     to act in concert for the good of Puerto Rico and the United 
     States.

                          ____________________