Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I come to the floor again today to discuss the Zika virus, which has been in the news quite often in my home State of Florida and internationally.

In a moment, I want to enter into the Record a number of articles that have appeared just in the last week in papers across the State of Florida.

On May 7, the newspaper in Pensacola had this headline: ``Panhandle conditions create a Zika 'powder keg.''' The argument it makes is that part of the State--as are many of the areas in the South--is an area where you find prevalent a species of mosquito which is the primary one that is now transmitting the Zika virus. It goes on to say that as temperatures rise and rainfall increases--these are the two elements that mosquitoes need to spread. So there is going to be a massive spread--as there is every year--in the specific species of mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus in the panhandle of Florida.

It is black and white and measures about a quarter of an inch in length. It is the sister to aedes aegypti, best known as the Yellow Fever Mosquito because of its past success at delivering that disease. It is behind the numerous outbreaks that caused panic and killed thousands in Pensacola between 1765 and 1905.

Today the two are once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons--they carry Zika, a virus suspected of causing birth defects in Brazil and other Latin American countries as well as the Caribbean.

Aedes aegypti was prevalent in the Florida Panhandle until the mid 1980s, said John P. Smith, a medical entomologist with Florida State University at Panama City who has studied insects that affect public health for more than 30 years.

At that time, the Asian Tiger began to assert itself when it came to the United States from Southeast Asia via the used tire trade.

``They are both bad guys, no doubt about it,'' Smith said. ``Or should I say bad girls. Only the females bite.''

Both mosquitoes also spread yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya.

The Asian Tiger is found in high concentrations on the Gulf Coast, creating a potential powder keg. This is because Zika spreads when mosquitoes bite multiple people after biting an infected person.

To date, the Panhandle mosquito population has not been infected. According to the Florida Department of Health, there has been one case of Zika in Santa Rosa County in a person who was infected while traveling abroad. As of Friday, there have been 105 travel-related cases of Zika in Florida.

A great deal of media ink and broadcast time has been spent on the disease, but how worried should the Panhandle be?

``I think it is a real concern,'' Smith said, ``and worth doing something to prevent it.'' Year-round concern

But mosquito control technicians in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties wage a year-round war against the tiny, slender pests.

When temperatures regularly hit 60 or above in March or April, the teams start spraying to knock out the adult mosquitoes who have hatched and begun their warm weather pursuit for food, i.e. blood.

But during the winter months, even in the coldest frost of January or February, mosquito larvae can lie dormant, stunting their own development to wait for warmer temperatures before emerging.

Keith Hussey and Temika Wilkes are the mosquito control directors at Santa Rosa and Escambia counties, respectively. Their staffs are out inspecting those places where mosquito larvae lie like baby vampires through the brisk weather months.

They inspect drainage ditches, holding ponds and woodland pools. They also do neighborhoods sweeps in search of man- made mosquito nurseries like old tires or other containers, foreclosed homes and abandoned swimming pools.

Larvicide and gambrusia fish, which are the size of guppies and thrive in stagnant water where they feed on mosquito larvae, are effective weapons.

``You can get more mosquitoes killed in a small pond of water than you can when they fly away all over the place,'' said Matthew Mello, Escambia County mosquito control supervisor.

FSU's Smith monitors 12 sites in Santa Rosa County. The mosquito control personnel in that county use his data to help strategize where and when they treat for mosquitoes. He and his staff also test the mosquitoes for diseases they are known to carry.

Escambia County's mosquito control budget for fiscal year 2015 to 2016 is just under $620,000. Santa Rosa County's budget this year is $495,000, and has proposed a budget of $594,518 for next year.

Smith said that because of the size of the area that needs to be covered, ``The programs in Northwest Florida are some of the poorest funded throughout the state.''

Bay County and other counties have specific taxing districts that are used to raise millions of dollars to combat mosquitoes. Their programs include aerial spraying from helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, public education programs and more staff who can cover more area.

The amount of local funding is enough to handle day-to-day and regular mosquito season needs, officials from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties say. But is it enough should a Zika infection break out locally, instead of from a far flung place?

``The county's mosquito control program has adequate funds to fulfill its mission and has successfully protected the residents from disease spread by mosquitoes for many years,'' said Ron Hixon, environmental manager for Santa Rosa County in a statement. ``Every year the county reviews its funding for mosquito control based on prior years mosquito data to ensure adequate funds are available.''

``Please be assured that the Santa Rosa County Environmental Department staff, specifically its Mosquito Control division staff, are actively monitoring the Zika situation and that the SRC Board of County Commissioners are ready to deploy whatever resources are necessary to protect the residents of Santa Rosa County,'' he said.

The Florida Department of Health said in a statement that it has an incident management team in its central office in Tallahassee. It coordinates with the state departments of agriculture and environmental protection as well as the Division of Emergency Management, the governor's office, VISIT Florida and others. Escambia County's Wilkes said ``operations are currently funded at a level that supports effective mosquito control. However, just like during a hurricane or other natural disaster, if we were to have a Zika outbreak and a subsequent state of emergency, we would need additional funding for supplies and overtime costs.''

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Mr. RUBIO. The second article says: ``Zika findings could be 'game changers,' opening doors to research.'' It begins by saying:

Two groups of scientists reported Wednesday that fetal mice infected with Zika showed brain damage, a finding that confirms the prevailing view that the virus can disrupt the development of fetal brains in humans and provides a clearer avenue to study the problem.

The work should put to rest lingering doubts in some quarters that the Zika outbreak sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean is responsible for a surge in babies born with microcephaly and other brain anomalies.

It goes on to quote an associate professor of pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, who says:

Let me put it bluntly: These are game changers. . . . We need to move forward now.

There is an article dated May 10 in the Miami Herald: ``Two new Zika cases in Miami-Dade raise state total to 109.''

Florida health officials confirmed two new Zika infections in Miami-Dade on Tuesday, raising the statewide total to 109 people who have contracted the virus this year, more than any state.

In Miami-Dade, where most of Florida's Zika cases have been reported, 44 people have been infected with the virus, said the state health department, but the disease has not been transmitted locally by mosquito bites. Broward County has reported 15 cases of Zika.

At about 5 o'clock today, I will meet with the Governor of our State, who is here asking for Federal aid to prepare for and combat the virus in the State of Florida.

The Governor said:

It's going to get warmer, we're going to have more rainfall, we're probably going to see more mosquitoes in our state. Our federal government has a variety of plans they're talking about. . . . We've got to address the Zika issue. Hopefully, we can get ahead of it.

But it isn't just limited to Florida. This is an article from USA TODAY dated May 6, 2016: ``Gulf Coast could be ground zero for Zika.''

The Gulf Coast may know hurricanes, but this year the region of 60 million people could find itself unprepared and at ground zero for a different type of storm: a mosquito- borne Zika epidemic.

A look at the region's urban hubs, small towns and rural outposts shows a patchwork of preparedness. Cities such as Houston have robust plans in place, while smaller towns, such as Corpus Christi, Texas, struggle with fewer resources.

This is just part of painting an overall picture of this very serious problem.

I would just say that the notion that we should only be worried about Florida or the States on the gulf coast alone would not be wise. Mosquitoes that infect people are found in 30 of the 50 States in this country. There are now Zika infections and Zika cases in multiple States across the country.

We now know that Zika isn't just transmitted from mosquitoes but can also be sexually transmitted. In fact, the only case of transmission in Florida was one that was sexually transmitted in Central Florida.

As we debate all these other important issues, this is a looming public health crisis. This is the situation we are now facing in this country. The time to act has come. The moment to act has come because right now in this body and in Washington, DC, we are facing a debate about this issue, about how much money we are going to spend on it.

Look, the President has proposed $1.9 billion to deal with it. About $500 million of that is designed to pay back the Ebola funding that has been used in the short term to fill in the gap, but the rest of it is for real programs that go into dealing with this issue and particularly dealing with it on the island of Puerto Rico, which has been disproportionately impacted. When I hear people say there haven't been any cases of Zika transmitted in the United States, they are wrong. People of Puerto Rico are American citizens. They travel to the mainland extensively. It is our responsibility to also fight and care for them in this process.

But the bottom line is that it is not a question of if, it is a question of when. There will be a mosquito transmission of Zika in the continental United States at some point over next few days, weeks, or months. We cannot get caught unprepared to deal with the consequences. The consequences, by the way, are not just to pregnant women, which in and of itself is reason to act--I don't mean to diminish it. The impact on pregnant women and their unborn children is extraordinary and devastating. The science on that is indisputable. We are seeing evidence of it all across the world and especially the Western Hemisphere being impacted by it. That alone is reason to act. But there is now a definitive link between Zika and Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is a debilitating, often fatal neurological condition that we know is associated with this.

By the way, these children who are being born after being infected in the womb with Zika, we don't know what the long-term prognosis is. Just because they are not born with microcephaly does not mean they will not suffer from other neurological deficiencies or other neurological conditions in the years to come. We simply don't know. It is not just a first-trimester threat anymore. We now know Zika can be transmitted and can do serious damage in the second trimester as well.

We know that soon the Olympic games will be played in Brazil, and that means hundreds of thousands of people will travel from and through the United States to the Olympics and back. We know we have constant visitors coming in and out of this country. How else would we get 109 cases in Florida? These are people who have either traveled abroad or have been infected by a partner in the one case I have cited.

This is an issue we should jump on with a real sense of urgency. It is a Federal responsibility to be involved in this. It is the job of the Federal Government to keep our people safe from external threats, and Zika today is an external threat spreading to this country--a country that is at the epicenter of global commerce and transit. It is just a matter of time before someone contracts Zika through a mosquito bite in the United States, and we have not prepared for it.

Localities and States are doing the best they can with their limited resources, but they do not have the comprehensive resources the Federal Government can bring to bear. They do not have the resources for research the Federal Government can bring to bear. They do not have the ability to deal with it at the ports of entry the way the Federal Government can. These are important priorities I hope we will move on.

In the last few hours, I have heard encouraging reports that there are a number of efforts going on behind the scenes in the Senate--at least one of them in a bipartisan way--to begin to address this issue. Over the next few hours, we will meet with the different stakeholders and others who are engaged in this issue to see if we can come up with a way forward.

Here is what I hope we will not do. I hope we will not politicize this issue. Zika is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. It shouldn't be a campaign issue, although I promise it will become one if we have a Zika outbreak in the United States and we are back home doing our constituent work and not here voting. People are going to ask: Why did you do nothing on this issue? You knew it was coming. It was clearly broadcasted and predicted. All the indicators were there and nothing happened. Inaction on this is, quite frankly, inexcusable. I don't believe voters will excuse us for refusing to act on this.

This should not be a political issue. It should not be a partisan issue. It shouldn't be used for one party to beat up on the other. There are so many other issues we can fight over but not on this--not where the real lives of real people are at stake. My hope is very soon--and I mean in the next couple of days--we can bring before this body a way forward on this issue that brings both parties together and that deals with this public health crisis in a responsible way.

Let me say, look, we are running a debt in this country. So if there is a way to pay for it--and I believe there can be a way to pay for it--I am all for that. I have ideas about how we can come up with some of that money. We can find $1.4 billion, $1.5 billion, $1.9 billion to pay for this, and I think we should endeavor to do so, but even if we cannot, we should never allow the inability to agree on how to pay for it to stand in the way of addressing a public health crisis that threatens to become a public health catastrophe. I prefer that we pay for it. I am for that, but I am not going to let an objection to that stand in the way of addressing this issue.

So through all the other issues we are debating today, from Presidential campaigns to water projects, I still do not believe we have given sufficient intensity, urgency or attention to this burgeoning issue that threatens the safety and security of our people. So it is my hope that over the next few hours and days we can come forward in a bipartisan way with a way forward, and I will continue to work to address and to achieve that.

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