[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 19, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H2549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PREVENTING FUTURE PANDEMICS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss what we must do 
to prevent the next pandemic and why it is not only a global health 
issue, but also an environmental one.
  The origins of the pandemic we are battling now are clear: 
unsanitary, unsafe wildlife markets.
  These markets, which are prevalent in some areas of Asia and Africa, 
but are present everywhere, including in the United States, are fed by 
trade in wildlife; some of it legal; some of it illegal; all of it very 
dangerous.
  They are breeding grounds for a strain of viruses known as zoonotics, 
which are diseases born from the unnatural intermingling of the bodily 
fluids of different species in an unsafe and unsanitary market that 
sold wildlife, living and dead, for human consumption.
  Other zoonotics include SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, swine flu, bird flu, 
HIV/AIDS, and now COVID. COVID-19 has truly opened the world's eyes to 
the danger of these markets and the global impact, and it should open 
our eyes to just how urgent the need for legislation around this is in 
order to prevent the loss of millions of lives.
  That is why over the course of the last year I wrote the Preventing 
Future Pandemics Act along with my friend, Mr. Fred Upton, and Senators 
Cory Booker and John Cornyn in the Senate. We may not agree on much, 
but we agree on this: We have the power to prevent the next pandemic, 
and to do nothing would be an act of negligence.
  A vital lesson that we need to learn from COVID is that we must 
fundamentally change the way that we interact with wildlife globally if 
we want to stop this from happening again. This means stopping 
deforestation and other habitat destruction, slowing and ending global 
climate change, and global shutdown of live wildlife markets.
  Already we have seen how changes in temperature and weather patterns 
and encroaching human development have brought people and wildlife into 
more frequent and more intimate contact. Human consumption of wildlife 
is simply the most dangerous form of that contact.
  To get at the root of this problem, the Preventing Future Pandemics 
Act would establish the official foreign policy of the U.S. to be that 
we would work with other countries to shut down these markets, end the 
trade in terrestrial wildlife for human consumption, and build 
international coalitions to reduce the demand for wildlife as food.
  The bill would authorize funding for USAID to work on reducing demand 
for consumption of wildlife from wildlife markets, and support shifts 
to alternate sources of food and protein in communities that rely upon 
this consumption for food security.
  Moreover, to truly lead by example, this bill would end the import 
and export of wildlife for human consumption in and out of the United 
States.
  While wildlife is not a major source of protein in our country, these 
markets do exist here, and they still pose a danger. If we are to 
establish and maintain a position of international leadership on this 
issue, we must practice what we preach.
  This bill will help us take significant steps to break down the silos 
between global health and conservation, because we know unequivocally 
that if we try to treat these as separate problems, we fail to solve 
either problem.
  After the economic and social devastation of the past year, and the 
way that COVID-19 has upended all of our lives, it is my view that the 
Preventing Future Pandemics Act is a national security bill, a 
conservation bill, an animal wildlife bill, a small business bill, a 
travel industry bill, a manufacturing bill, a retail bill, a mental 
health bill, a housing bill, and a public transit bill. It is a bill to 
protect our lives and livelihoods from the threat of human consumption 
of wildlife and the associated wildlife trade.
  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to rally around this 
in order to potentially save the world from suffering the consequences 
of inaction and standing by hopelessly as we watch another pandemic 
ravage our world.
  The next pandemic can be stopped, and the Preventing Future Pandemics 
Act is a vital first step. Let's do it together.

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