[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9929]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 ZIKA VIRUS AND VA-MILCON FUNDING BILL

  Mr. REID. Madam President, here are just a few brief words on the 
Zika funding matter. This conference report is full of poison pills. I 
will give you just a few of them.
  Again, the House Republicans can't help themselves and, of course, 
the Senate Republicans joined with them. They have to do everything 
they can to whack Planned Parenthood, and that is what they do in this 
conference report. They restrict funding for birth control provided by 
Planned Parenthood. Can you believe that? And with this Zika problem, 
who does it affect? Women, and especially pregnant women. It exempts 
pesticide spraying from Clean Water Act prohibitions and protections, 
cuts veterans funding by $500 million, cuts Ebola funding by $107 
million, and cuts ObamaCare by $543 million.
  Listen to this one. Why would they do this? They stick a provision in 
this that strikes a prohibition that we had placed in the legislation 
on displaying a Confederate flag. What they have done is just great. 
Any veterans facility can fly that Confederate flag. Why would they put 
that in this bill? Of course, it sets a terrible precedent for 
offsetting emergency spending, and it is missing $800 million--what a 
shame.
  It is like we are being dared to oppose this legislation. We have no 
choice.

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