Providing for Consideration of H.R. Helping Angels Lead Our Startups Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the previous question. I ask Members to defeat it so that the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) can offer an amendment for this House to immediately consider legislation to confront the Zika crisis. There are already 891 confirmed cases of the Zika virus in the United States and its territories, and 81 of them are pregnant women. This is an emergency.

We do have a disaster relief fund in this Congress. It is about $8 billion so that when there is a flood, when there is a fire, when there is a hurricane, we can immediately move to take that money and address the costs of life and other costs from that disaster.

Unfortunately, we don't have a public health emergency fund, which is why the President is asking for $1.9 billion. This is an emergency. We cannot afford to wait another day to approve the President's request. Every day we delay, we redirect crucial resources away from city and State emergency preparedness funding. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Cities and States across the country are being robbed of emergency preparedness grants, $44 million in total. Not only will these States have fewer resources to address public health crises, they will have fewer resources to address the Zika virus itself. Already in addition to that $44 million, the administration has reprogrammed $510 million from the Ebola crisis funding, and that crisis is not over in western Africa.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I am going to include in the Record a list of all of the States and the amount of money that they have already lost in emergency grants for preparedness for health emergencies.

California, almost 10 percent loss; Florida, almost 10 percent loss; North Carolina, 8 percent; Texas, almost 10 percent in money taken away from preparedness grants.

Mr. Speaker, it is unconscionable that in the midst of a global health crisis, we cannot appropriate emergency funds to save lives and instead resort to gutting our States' emergency preparedness.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to think of the women across our country and the predicament that they face today of choosing whether or not they should get pregnant or, if they are already pregnant, wondering whether or not their baby is okay. We must fund the President's request. It is the responsible and moral thing to do.

Yes, today, physicians are divided as to whether or not they should tell women of the United States not to get pregnant. Is that the message we want to send to American women? I don't think so.

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