Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator from Florida yielding for a question.
I wish to ask the question, Is the Senator aware that $580 million of unspent Ebola funds has been reprogrammed by the Obama administration as a down payment on dealing with this impending crisis?
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Mr. CORNYN. Yesterday the Murray-Blunt language, which now the Democratic leader calls a bandaid, actually obtained cloture, and I expect it will pass tomorrow as part of the underlying appropriations bill.
Mr. President, $1.1 billion on top of the $585 million that has already been reprogrammed from the Ebola fund to be used to combat the Zika virus is not a bandaid; it is a serious effort in a nonpartisan way to address a public health challenge.
As we can see from the map, Texas is right in the crosshairs. We are ground zero in the United States, along with Florida, Louisiana, and other Southern States where this mosquito is present. Thank goodness no mosquito-borne transmission has occurred yet. But I agree with my colleague from Florida. This is a serious matter, and we need to treat it seriously, but that is not what is happening now.
This is a bill that the Senate defeated cloture on yesterday, and this is an attempt to end run that defeat of a vote before the entire Senate. I am compelled to object.
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I apologize to the Democratic leader. Apparently I wasn't able to communicate my point, which is that there is already $580 million available today to combat the Zika virus. Finally, the administration took the advice of those on this side of the aisle and said: Let's take the unused Ebola funds to fight it today while we have an orderly process by which we appropriate the money in a responsible way.
I think the Senator from Washington, Mrs. Murray, and Senator Blunt, the chairman and ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee, have done a good job of winnowing down the $1.9 billion request to the $1.1 billion which I agree is the right figure. While we have some other differences, I think the Senate is acting in a responsible and bipartisan way, which is the only way things can actually get done around here.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
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Mr. CORNYN. The amendment of the Senator from Washington, along with Senator Blunt, the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for this, actually obtained cloture and will pass tomorrow--tomorrow--as part of this underlying appropriations bill, assuming that there are no other objections or that people want to finish that legislation. So I don't really understand why they continue to refuse to take yes for an answer.
I would say to my friend from Washington: Would the Senator modify her request to include my language at the desk, which has the exact same funding levels as the Blunt-Murray amendment but includes a pay- for using the prevention fund in the Affordable Care Act?
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I wish to respond briefly to my friend from Washington. The prevention fund that was created by the Affordable Care Act that is part of the President's signature health care bill has more than adequate money in it to pay for the research, the mosquito eradication, and the other services that are necessary. It is not depriving anyone of money that they otherwise would have coming.
What it does do is it alleviates the financial burden on future generations to actually pay the money back that we insist on spending without providing for adequate offsets. So increasing deficits is why the national debt has almost doubled under this President because of the reckless spending.
We are trying to do this in a responsible, bipartisan, and, indeed, I would say, nonpartisan sort of way, but apparently that is not acceptable to our friends on the other side.
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