[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9933]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ZIKA VIRUS FUNDING

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, we will soon vote on a bill that would 
provide funding for a coordinated response to the Zika virus--a virus 
that has already ravaged many parts of Latin America and places like 
Puerto Rico. Over the past few weeks, our Democratic friends have 
repeatedly stressed the urgency of this matter. And the summer months 
coming are likely to bring us more mosquitoes, which, of course, are 
the primary vector that carries this virus. Thankfully, in the United 
States, no one who has contracted the Zika virus has done so through a 
mosquito; it has been from people traveling to Central and South 
America, who have been bitten there--at least that is according to most 
current statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
We know they are coming, and we need to act with dispatch.
  I know many of our friends across the aisle were very eager to get 
this done because they came down and made unanimous consent requests 
for $1.9 billion. As you will recall, the Senate passed an 
appropriation for $1.1 billion, and the only difference between the 
House and Senate was whether this would be deficit spending or whether 
it would actually be offset or paid for, which was the House's 
position. I think the House had the better argument. If we could pay 
for it, that would be ideal, but I think everybody agrees we need to 
get moving quickly to protect our communities.
  Of course, the people most vulnerable to the Zika virus are women of 
childbearing age. If a mosquito carrying Zika were to bite you, you 
might not even notice it or you might feel as though you have had a 
little flu symptom for a day and then it would go away. We simply don't 
know enough about how long the virus is retained in the body, so even 
if a woman isn't pregnant when she is bitten, the fact that she was 
bitten and is of childbearing age and what that might mean is an 
unknown. It is frightening, particularly if you are a woman of 
childbearing age.
  I hope we will act with dispatch. I know it is not fast enough for 
some of our colleagues who wanted us to do this without the usual 
conference committee with the House to try to reconcile differences, 
but we need to get this done. It is surprising now to hear some of our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle say they actually plan to 
filibuster this legislation, and the President apparently is indicating 
he might veto it. I am really interested to hear how they arrived from 
point A to point B, having taken the position several weeks ago that we 
ought do it immediately, and now, once it has come to fruition, saying 
we can simply blow it up, that it is not good enough, and not complete 
our work here.
  It really is unfortunate. I hope cooler heads prevail. This country 
is on the verge of a public health crisis, and talking to Governor 
Abbott in Texas and also the public health officials there, I know they 
are very concerned about what this means. And I am sure, like the 
preceding speaker from Florida--Florida, Louisiana, and Texas are some 
very temperate, warm weather regions and are particularly vulnerable to 
this particular type of mosquito and this virus, but it could spread to 
other parts of the country, too, unless we act with dispatch tomorrow 
to approve this conference report and to get this bill to the 
President's desk and to get the money to the researchers and the people 
trying to develop a vaccine, which ultimately may be the ultimate tool 
in the toolbox so the people can be vaccinated so that, for example, 
women who are of childbearing age don't have to worry about the 
possibility of acquiring this disease or what it might mean to their 
unborn child.
  We need to make sure the doctors and the researchers and other public 
health officials on the front lines get the resources they need. The 
good news is that--taking some advice from the Senate and the House, 
Republicans, in particular--the President decided to reprogram $589 
million left over in the Ebola account. They did that a few weeks ago. 
As of earlier this month, only $40 million of that $589 million has 
been obligated. There is a cushion there, but I think we should be 
careful about acting complacently when it comes to dealing with this 
particular crisis, or impending crisis.
  For the President and some of our colleagues who have been insistent 
that we act on this now to say ``We are going to filibuster it'' or 
``The President will actually veto it'' is really pretty hard to get 
your head around, unless you conclude it is completely disingenuous and 
irresponsible. I would like to give our colleagues a little more credit 
than that. I am anxious to hear how they have changed their position so 
dramatically from just a few weeks ago.
  We will vote on this proposal tomorrow, and I hope that cooler heads 
will prevail and our colleagues will vote to support it, so we can 
quickly get the urgent resources needed to those public health services 
that are studying the virus, working on prevention--including mosquito 
eradication, which is an important part of this--as well as creating a 
vaccine.
  The minority leader, in particular, spent a considerable amount of 
time on the floor stressing how dire the need is to fund Zika 
prevention efforts. He and the rest of his caucus will have a clear 
choice. They can either play politics at the expense of the mothers and 
the children across the country, or they can simply decide to do the 
right thing and support the bipartisan Zika bill.

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