Disapproving A Rule Submitted By The Department Of Labor

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last week the CDC announced it is monitoring nearly 300 pregnant women in the United States and territories for possible Zika infections. That means nearly 300 families across our country are living through a true nightmare for expecting parents. They are waiting for news about whether their newborn will be safe and healthy.

Unfortunately, with almost 1,400 cases of Zika already reported, the number of expecting moms and dads in this awful position is only expected to grow. As a mother, a grandmother, and a United States Senator, I strongly believe it is our responsibility to act as quickly as possible for these families and the families who will unfortunately be impacted by the Zika virus in the weeks and months ahead.

Just to be clear, mosquito season has already started in some parts of our country, and we do not have any time to waste. In fact, we should have been able to act much sooner. President Obama's emergency funding proposal to support the Zika response has been available for everyone to see since February. Similar to many of my colleagues, I was disappointed the Republican leader refused to even consider it and that instead they came up with one excuse after another to delay, even though public health experts and researchers have made it very clear this is truly an urgent public health crisis.

Some Republicans said Zika wasn't something they were willing to give the administration a penny more for, others said they would think about more money to fight Zika but only in return for partisan spending cuts, and others spent more time thinking about how to get political cover than actually trying to address this problem, but many of us knew how important this was and we didn't give up.

So I am very glad that after a lot of pressure from women, families, Governors, and scientists, and after a lot of pushing Republicans to get serious about dealing with this emergency, many of our Republican colleagues in the Senate finally joined us at the table last week to open a path for an important step forward.

I appreciate the work of Chairman Blunt, who joined me to get this done, as well as all the Senators on both sides of the aisle who voted for it. While Democrats didn't get the full amount we had hoped for in this compromise, I am glad the Senate was able to pass a $1.1 billion downpayment on the President's proposal as an emergency bill, without offsets.

Our agreement would accelerate the administration's work, and it would allow money to start flowing to address this crisis even as we continue fighting for more as needed. This agreement was supported by every Democrat and a little less than half of the Republicans in the Senate. So the Senate has a strong bipartisan first step ready to go.

Unfortunately, House Republicans went in a very different direction. They released an underfunded, partisan, and, in my opinion, mean- spirited bill that would provide only $622 million--less than one-third of what is needed in this emergency--without any funding for preventive health care, family planning, or outreach even to those who are at risk of getting Zika. They are still insisting that funding for this public health emergency be fully offset, and the administration should somehow siphon money away from their critical Ebola response and other essential activities in order to fund the Zika efforts. House Republicans clearly feel this health care crisis is an appropriate moment to somehow nickel-and-dime and that it is a good opportunity to prioritize Heritage Action over women and families, but if you are 1 of nearly 300 mothers the CDC is monitoring for likely Zika infection or one of the almost 1,400 people infected so far or one of the millions of expecting mothers nationwide, I bet you would like to know your government is doing everything it can now to tackle this virus. So I am continuing to call on Senate Republicans to get our bipartisan Zika agreement to the House as quickly as possible. Senate Republicans have already said they would be willing to do this if we exchange it for Affordable Health Care Act cuts, and I think they should be just as willing to do it for the sake of women and families who are at risk.

This agreement has strong bipartisan support. It can move through the House, and it can get to the President to be signed into law so our researchers, our scientists, and those in the field can get to work. This Republican-controlled Congress has already waited far too long to act on Zika. We should not wait any longer.

5243, that all after the enacting clause be stricken; that the Blunt-Murray substitute amendment to provide $1.1 billion in funding to enhance the Federal response and preparedness with respect to the Zika virus be agreed to; that there be up to 1 hour of debate, equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, with no intervening action or debate.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me just say this. This Zika virus is an emergency now, and though my constituents don't live in Texas, we have people in Washington State who have traveled to infected countries, gotten Zika transmitted through mosquito, have come home, and now they need to have tests to determine whether they have been infected. Those tests will not be available until we provide this money. The Ebola response money that was just referred to needs to be there because Ebola is not eradicated and can come back at any minute, and we are doing everything we can as a nation to protect American citizens.

What we are trying to do is move the bipartisan bill that has been approved in the Senate quickly to the House. Yes, it has been attached to an appropriations bill, but for us to sit back and wait until a conference committee is appointed on that and does the long negotiations over the summer into the fall is too late. We can deal with this now. That is what I ask to do today, and we will continue to push until we can assure people in our States across the country that we are doing everything we can as a nation to help protect our citizens from the Zika virus, particularly expectant mothers or possibly expectant mothers and families.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, today Americans have enough to worry about. Questioning the advice they get for their retirement savings accounts should not have to be one of them.

We finally have a new protection on the books that would help protect seniors' retirement savings from biased retirement advice. It is called the fiduciary rule, and it is pretty simple. It says if financial advisers are giving people advice on their retirement accounts, they should put their clients' best interests ahead of their own. But with the resolution that is before us, Republicans want to prevent that rule from ever helping people to save up for retirement. Instead, they are dead set on saving the status quo that has allowed financial advisers to line their own pockets at the expense of people trying to save for their retirement. After a lifetime of hard work, all seniors should have the chance to live out their golden years on firm financial footing and with peace of mind.

Once again, I urge my colleagues to vote no.

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