Zika Vector Control Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding and also for his hard work on this important piece of legislation. Coming from mosquito country, I am very much interested in this legislation.

Madam Speaker, passing the Zika Vector Control Act is a step that we must take today that will have a major impact on preventing the spread of the Zika virus as well as many other deadly mosquito-borne illnesses.

Right now the Centers for Disease Control is advising Americans to adopt the most commonsense method to avoid contacting Zika, and that is preventing mosquito bites. Since a vaccine does not exist, we need to prevent bites in the first place.

Our Nation's mosquito control districts are on the frontline of reducing mosquito populations that not only carry Zika, but other dangerous diseases such as West Nile virus. I can just tell you that I have a personal friend who passed away from West Nile, and I also know several people in my community whose lives have been changed forever by infection from West Nile. Dengue fever and various forms of encephalitis are huge problems also.

The legislation being offered today by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Gibbs) offers a simple, commonsense fix to one of the biggest burdens of our mosquito control districts. For more than 40 years, both Democrat and Republican administrations alike have not required mosquito control districts to seek a permit for treating mosquitoes since the EPA already approves every pesticide and every applicator being used.

However, several years ago, EPA required another permit in addition to the approval processes chemicals and applicators already go through. This duplicative permitting is very costly. The State of California alone--the gentlewoman's State--spends $3 million annually on these duplicative permits. That is $3 million less in resources to combat mosquitoes. To make matters worse, mosquito control districts now face increased legal uncertainty due to these new permits.

One district in my State informed me that they now set aside fully 20 percent of their budget for potential legal challenges related to the permits. Now, that is 20 percent of their budget that is not going to combat mosquitoes. To me, that is an example of government red tape at its worst, and it is putting lives at risk. So I would disagree with my friend from Oregon that it does reduce the amount of control that we do see.

Opponents of this legislation say that this will place our waters at risk. But, Madam Speaker, nothing can be further from the truth. Appropriate regulation already exists. All of the pesticides being used have already been approved by the EPA for safe use. The only risk to public health that will come from this legislation would be not to pass it.

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Not passing this bill will continue to unnecessarily expose millions of Americans to Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases and will restrict resources for those desperately trying to keep the American people safe.

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