Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, for months Democrats have asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act, while the Zika virus has spread across South America, Central America, and several U.S. territories. For months, we have asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act, while more and more American travelers are back in the United States after contracting the Zika virus. For months, we have asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act, while health experts at the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have begged Congress for the resources to fight this disease. For months, we have asked Republicans who control the Senate to let us act, while more people infected by Zika have developed a debilitating and sometimes fatal condition that damages the nervous system. For months we have asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act, while more mothers infected by Zika have given birth to babies with severe brain defects. And for months, we have asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act, while the President has been forced to divert emergency funds from other critical areas, including the emergency Ebola response.

Today, months after President Obama first requested nearly $2 billion to fight the Zika virus in the United States, the Republicans who control the Senate will finally let us vote on options for funding the Zika response.

Today the Senate will consider three proposals. The first proposal would completely fund the President's response plan. It offers our best hope to fully protect Americans, and I will vote for that proposal. I plead with every Senator to do the same because that is what our Nation's experts have said it will cost to limit the sickness, death, and deformity caused by the Zika virus.

I know that some Republicans understand this point. Senator Rubio, whose State of Florida is at great risk for local transmission of Zika, recently said this:

I believe in limited government, but I do believe one of the obligations of a limited Federal Government is to protect our people from dangers, whether they be foreign enemies or the risk of disease outbreak. . . . I don't think we want to be halfway through the summer and wake up to the news that hundreds and hundreds of Americans in multiple States have been infected and we did nothing.

Senator Rubio supports fully funding the President's response plan. I hope it passes the Senate. If it doesn't, it will be because the majority of Senate Republicans vote against it. If that happens, we will be forced to consider another proposal.

The second proposal would give the President half of what is needed to fight the outbreak. I will support this proposal if that is the last resort, as will many Democrats, because this is a health emergency. If your ship is sinking and you need 12 lifeboats but you can only get 6, you take the 6. We will take whatever the Republicans who control the Senate are willing to give to protect the American people.

Cutting the Zika funding request in half might give Republicans a chance to tell people how tough they are on spending, and that may be how Republican politics works, but it is not how science works. It is not possible to delay a response to a health emergency for month after month without consequences. It is not possible to nickel-and-dime a response to a health emergency without consequences. Sure, the Republicans' half measure is better than nothing. But an estimated 4 million people are facing the prospect of Zika infection by the end of this year, and a half response is not good enough.

The final Republican proposal is even dumber. It would not only give the President about half of what is needed but it would cover the cost by gutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which provides significant support to local public health departments all across the country. You heard that right. Some Senate Republicans think the best way to fund America's emergency response to the Zika virus is to rob from America's frontline responders who help identify and track infectious diseases such as the Zika virus.

On the other side of Congress, House Republicans are kicking around an even more bizarre idea--funding only about one-third of the President's plan to fight Zika and doing it by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars out of our Ebola response. With the Ebola epidemic just passed and still no FDA-approved vaccine or treatment for Ebola, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?

I simply do not understand the Republicans. The responsible thing to do--the rational thing to do--is to invest the resources needed to stop the Zika threat in its tracks and to invest in more science and public health infrastructure so that we are ready when the next crisis comes.

As congressional Republicans embrace this irrational anti-spending ideology, this country is put in greater and greater danger. Instead of investing in research so we can develop effective treatments, instead of supporting careful planning so we are ready for the next health challenge, and instead of fully funding emergency response infrastructure so we are prepared to respond to new threats, these Republicans govern by simply lurching from crisis to crisis.

We are in this mess with Zika--a mess that is about to get a lot worse--because of stupid decisions made right here in Congress. Keep in mind that Zika, like Ebola, is a disease we have known about for years. But our ability to do the necessary research to eradicate these threats has been undercut by Republicans' desire to make more and more budget cuts, even when they put the health of Americans in danger.

This country's scientific research capacity has been decimated. Over the last decade, the budget of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has lost about 20 percent of its purchasing power-- 20 percent. The Prevention and Public Health Fund that helps build the infrastructure needed to prevent people from getting sick and to shut down outbreaks like Zika has been on the Republicans' chopping block year after year.

Here is the bottom line. Our doctors, scientists, and health officials need our complete support in fighting this virus. They have told us how much money they need to do that. The less money Congress gives them, the more people will be hurt by the Zika virus--more babies with heartbreaking deformities, more adults with devastating illnesses.

The Zika virus does not care what politicians in Washington decide is politically expedient. The virus is coming, and if Republicans block Congress from protecting the people of this country, then Republicans must accept responsibility for the devastating consequences.

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