[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14704-14705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             EBOLA EPIDEMIC

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, before discussing the legislation 
involving the National Labor Relations Board which the Republican 
leader mentioned, I wish to align myself with his comments on the Ebola 
epidemic. In my view, he is right to support the President's effort for 
a more urgent response to this epidemic.
  I am not given to making overstatements--I think that would be a fair 
reputation in this body--but I believe we should treat the Ebola 
epidemic as

[[Page 14705]]

seriously as we treat the danger of ISIS. Why would I say that? Because 
the head of the Centers for Disease Control and our United Nations 
Ambassador, who is working with other countries to get them involved, 
say this: This is one of the most deadly, explosive epidemics in modern 
times. It moves rapidly. There is no vaccine, and there is no cure. One 
sick person can fairly quickly infect 20 other persons within a family 
in these West African countries where it is now a problem. One can see 
how quickly this could spread and become hundreds of thousands of cases 
or even millions of cases.
  This is a case where Samantha Power said to me: We should be running 
toward burning flames with our fireproof suits on. In other words, we 
know how to control it. We know how to identify sick people and isolate 
them and treat them. Even though half of them die, we know how to do 
that. But the rate of growth of this epidemic is so rapid that we need 
to have a response that is as urgent as the problem.
  I congratulate the Republican leader for supporting the President's 
effort today to call attention to this. So much is happening in the 
world, and there is a possibility that we would treat the Ebola 
epidemic as an important issue but not a major issue. As I said, I 
believe we must take the deadly, dangerous threat of Ebola as seriously 
as we take the threat of ISIS.
  I support the administration's recommendation to spend $30 million in 
the continuing resolution to upgrade the public health efforts there. I 
support the reprogramming of $500 million to involve the military in a 
way to deal with this. I support the effort to spend $58 million, which 
would be to fast track efforts to develop a treatment and cure, as well 
as vaccines to prevent it.


                              NLRB Reform

  Mr. President, the Republican leader spoke about legislation he and I 
are introducing today which we call the National Labor Relations Board 
Reform Act.
  (The remarks of Senator Alexander pertaining to the introduction of 
S. 2814 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have great respect for the Senator from 
Tennessee, having worked together on many issues, as politicians often 
throw those words around. He is a good person, a good Senator. I enjoy 
working with him. I do have to take exception to one thing, though.

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