Passage of H.R. 5243

Floor Speech

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Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, last night, this Congress passed a bill to allocate funding for resources to fight the spread of the Zika virus. This funding, however, is woefully insufficient.

H.R. 5243 provides less than one-third of the White House request sent to Congress earlier this year.

Additionally, this bill also completely neglects the immediate needs of the territories of Puerto Rico and my home district of the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are both on the front line of this public health crisis.

Of the 1200 confirmed cases in the United States, more than half have been reported in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

While the Administration requested about $256 million in health care assistance to the territories, H.R. 5243 bill provides no targeted funding to the U.S. Territories.

The House bill also cuts the request for research and development of vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics by $132 million or 28.4 percent.

The lack of funding for these public health activities will put hundreds of thousands of pregnant women at risk. The lifetime cost of treating a child with microcephaly is estimated to be more than $10 million--a cost that will only exacerbate the financial woes of the territories' public health apparatus.

Mr. Speaker, every day this Congress debates whether or not to protect women and unborn children from this virus, more cases are being reported and confirmed.

Just last week, the first U.S. case of Zika-related microcephaly was identified in a pregnancy in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues to continue toward funding the President's emergency request to fight the Zika virus. We need to eradicate this mosquito now. We cannot wait for June for more authorized funding.

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