[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2891]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Ebola Funding

  Madam President, in early May, President Trump proposed rescinding 
$250 million meant to combat the Ebola virus and other infectious 
diseases. Not only are these rescissions a slap in the face of the 
bipartisan budget process, but they are dangerous to our national 
health and security.
  Just last week, a new case of the Ebola virus was confirmed in the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and at least two dozen people have 
already died in this most recent outbreak.
  Let's not forget how vociferously our friends on the other side of 
the aisle criticized President Obama on how he handled the Ebola 
outbreak in 2014. Once again, Donald Trump totally contradicts what he 
said in the past with what he is doing now.
  Here is what Donald Trump tweeted in 2014:

       Ebola has been confirmed in NYC with officials frantically 
     trying to find all of the people and things he had contact 
     with. Obama's fault.

  Well, does he now say that it is Trump's fault? What mind-bending 
hypocrisy.
  Now President Donald Trump proposes rescinding the same funding that 
Congress passed to help handle the Ebola crisis in 2014 and that 
continues to keep America safe. God forbid this funding is rescinded 
and Ebola outbreaks reemerge. It would actually be President Trump's 
fault.
  The President should withdraw his rescission request for this 
funding, as Senator Leahy and his colleagues on the State and Foreign 
Operations Appropriations Subcommittee asked in a letter this week. 
That funding should be free for USAID to use as Congress intended. And 
Donald Trump ought to learn from his past statements. If he can blame 
Obama for not fully going after the Ebola outbreak in 2014, why is he 
cutting money for Ebola now?