Disapproving A Rule Submitted By The Department Of Labor
Floor Speech
I wish our Democratic colleagues would spend as much time working with us to try to solve problems as they do engaged in political theater and posturing.
Mrs. Murray, the Senator from Washington, has done good work working with the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee, Senator Blunt, in coming up with a piece of legislation that funds the Zika response at $1.1 billion. That legislation has already passed the Senate. What remains to be done is the House and the Senate need to come together in a conference committee--which is the typical way where differences of approach are reconciled--to come up with a responsible piece of legislation.
In the meantime, I am glad the President has taken up our suggestion initially that until this can happen, they reprogram money--$589 million--from the Ebola response that had not yet been expended and transfer that to the Zika response. I am confident that money has not been spent yet and plenty is available to deal with it while Congress does its business in an orderly sort of way.
I would have to say to my friend from Washington, my State is going to be directly in the crosshairs because this mosquito is not native to Washington State but it is to the warmer parts of our country--Texas and Louisiana. Thank goodness no one so far has gotten the Zika virus from a mosquito. It is people who have traveled to South America, Puerto Rico, or elsewhere and come back to the United States, but we all agree on a bipartisan basis that this is a very serious matter and we can't waste time. There is $589 million available to deal with it now.
Secondly, we are working--as we typically do--with the House to try to reconcile our differences and to do our work in a responsible sort of way. In the meantime, our Democratic colleagues are blocking legislation, like the Defense authorization bill. They are throwing obstacles in the way of our getting the Senate back to work in every way they possibly can, including this--which, I am sorry to say, is just political theater and posturing.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source