Relating to Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his forceful arguments against this reckless rule that is before us today.

I rise, Mr. Speaker, in strong opposition to the rule and, really, in a state of wonderment, wonderment about how on earth this Congress of the United States can be so insensitive to a challenge to the American people.

It is our responsibility to honor our preamble to the Constitution, to promote the general welfare. That is in the preamble of our Constitution, which we take an oath to defend.

The distinguished gentleman from Oklahoma, whom I respect, said just be patient. No. No. Ninety-four days since the President of the United States asked for the amount of resources necessary to address the Zika crisis, an amount of money that was requested by the scientists, documented by the urgency of this challenge for the research and for the prevention and for the resources needed to address this public health emergency.

I rise not only as the House Democratic leader, I rise as a mother and a grandmother, and I speak to parents and grandparents in this body because that is all I am allowed to speak to.

The questions that I have for you are: How can we ignore the President's scientifically based request expressed in the words of Dr. Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, a person, a healthcare leader in our country, a researcher, a scientist who has been described by President George Herbert Walker Bush as a hero--as a hero--in his work for the American people and their public health?

Dr. Fauci says: If we don't get the money that the President has asked for, the $1.9 billion, that is going to have a very serious negative impact on our ability to get the job done.

Another scientist, Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control, the public health agency to stop this threat, said: Never before in history has there been a situation where a bite from a mosquito can result in devastating fetal malformation.

Testimony went on to say that we are talking about children with irreversible brain damage who will never be able to walk, talk, see, or hear, children whose care over a lifetime is estimated to cost more than $10 million.

The money is one thing. The devastation to that child and to that family is far more consequential. So the $1.9 billion is a great deal of money.

It is an emergency. It is a small price to pay to prevent irreversible brain damage in our children. It is a small price to pay instead of saying to families: Don't think about having children now because of this epidemic.

The Republicans are treating the threat of Zika with so little seriousness that they decided to use the crisis as an opportunity to eliminate protections for the water that our children drink.

The so-called Zika Vector Control Act the Republicans are adding to this package this morning that they are asking you to vote for is nothing but a longstanding and craven repackaged Republican effort to gut the Clean Water Act. It is a pesticide Trojan horse that will do nothing to protect Americans from Zika.

This is really a dishonoring of our responsibility to protect and defend our fellow Americans. As our distinguished member of the Committee on Rules mentioned, this is a defense issue. It is about protecting the American people.

This proposal today puts forth one-third of what the President has asked for--one-third. People say: Aren't you happy with one-third of a loaf? It is not one-third of a loaf. It is one-third of a shoe. You cannot get there from here with one-third.

It is really an insult to the scientists who have spoken out. Actually, it is one-third of the President's request, but it is one- fifth of what the CDC has requested for the public health activities.

We must elevate the importance of the public health responsibility that we have. If we had a natural disaster, FEMA has funds to come to the rescue of the American people. That is our compact with the American people, to help them in ways that they could never help themselves because of the scope of the challenge.

This is no less a challenge. In fact, it would probably result in more loss of life, malformation of unborn children. On top of that, think of the negative impact it will have, distrust to travel to certain regions in our country.

This is so reckless. Just when I thought I had seen it all on the part of the Republicans in the Congress to disregard meeting the needs of the American people, along comes this incomprehensible explanation to anybody why this might be a proposal worthy of the floor of the House, worthy of the public health challenge to the American people, worthy of our concerns about the American people.

My Republican colleagues, you have outdone yourselves today. What you are doing is reckless. In this bill, we should be meeting this challenge the way we meet emergencies: with adequate resources, which will end up saving money because they will be an investment in the health of the American people. It has been over 90 days since the President has made the request.

I will just say this one other thing. It is not our role to instill fear, but we have to face the challenge in a very clear-eyed way. The virus from this mosquito is sexually transmitted. We have no idea--it could be as long as 18 months--how long it would reside in a gentleman who might be bitten by the mosquito. It could be over a year, it could be shorter, but it is not one night.

Secondly, if you get bitten by this mosquito when you travel someplace where it might be pervasive, you not only get bitten yourself, you bring it home. Again, it is sexually transmitted.

It is transmitted in even more pervasive ways. Any other garden variety mosquito that would bite you, who have already been bitten by the other mosquito, now is a carrier of that virus. We turn garden variety mosquitoes into an army on the assault of the public health of the American people.

So, again, as a mother and a grandmother, as a parent, and for the fathers and grandfathers who serve here, think of the children, think of the risk, think of the responsibility that we have. Think of the irresponsibility of this bill before us today and the reckless disregard for public health in our country that the Republicans are putting forth in this legislation, and vote ``no.''

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