Zika Virus Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, we will soon vote on a bill that would provide funding for a coordinated response to the Zika virus--a virus that has already ravaged many parts of Latin America and places like Puerto Rico. Over the past few weeks, our Democratic friends have repeatedly stressed the urgency of this matter. And the summer months coming are likely to bring us more mosquitoes, which, of course, are the primary vector that carries this virus. Thankfully, in the United States, no one who has contracted the Zika virus has done so through a mosquito; it has been from people traveling to Central and South America, who have been bitten there--at least that is according to most current statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We know they are coming, and we need to act with dispatch.

I know many of our friends across the aisle were very eager to get this done because they came down and made unanimous consent requests for $1.9 billion. As you will recall, the Senate passed an appropriation for $1.1 billion, and the only difference between the House and Senate was whether this would be deficit spending or whether it would actually be offset or paid for, which was the House's position. I think the House had the better argument. If we could pay for it, that would be ideal, but I think everybody agrees we need to get moving quickly to protect our communities.

Of course, the people most vulnerable to the Zika virus are women of childbearing age. If a mosquito carrying Zika were to bite you, you might not even notice it or you might feel as though you have had a little flu symptom for a day and then it would go away. We simply don't know enough about how long the virus is retained in the body, so even if a woman isn't pregnant when she is bitten, the fact that she was bitten and is of childbearing age and what that might mean is an unknown. It is frightening, particularly if you are a woman of childbearing age.

I hope we will act with dispatch. I know it is not fast enough for some of our colleagues who wanted us to do this without the usual conference committee with the House to try to reconcile differences, but we need to get this done. It is surprising now to hear some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle say they actually plan to filibuster this legislation, and the President apparently is indicating he might veto it. I am really interested to hear how they arrived from point A to point B, having taken the position several weeks ago that we ought do it immediately, and now, once it has come to fruition, saying we can simply blow it up, that it is not good enough, and not complete our work here.

It really is unfortunate. I hope cooler heads prevail. This country is on the verge of a public health crisis, and talking to Governor Abbott in Texas and also the public health officials there, I know they are very concerned about what this means. And I am sure, like the preceding speaker from Florida--Florida, Louisiana, and Texas are some very temperate, warm weather regions and are particularly vulnerable to this particular type of mosquito and this virus, but it could spread to other parts of the country, too, unless we act with dispatch tomorrow to approve this conference report and to get this bill to the President's desk and to get the money to the researchers and the people trying to develop a vaccine, which ultimately may be the ultimate tool in the toolbox so the people can be vaccinated so that, for example, women who are of childbearing age don't have to worry about the possibility of acquiring this disease or what it might mean to their unborn child.

We need to make sure the doctors and the researchers and other public health officials on the front lines get the resources they need. The good news is that--taking some advice from the Senate and the House, Republicans, in particular--the President decided to reprogram $589 million left over in the Ebola account. They did that a few weeks ago. As of earlier this month, only $40 million of that $589 million has been obligated. There is a cushion there, but I think we should be careful about acting complacently when it comes to dealing with this particular crisis, or impending crisis.

For the President and some of our colleagues who have been insistent that we act on this now to say ``We are going to filibuster it'' or ``The President will actually veto it'' is really pretty hard to get your head around, unless you conclude it is completely disingenuous and irresponsible. I would like to give our colleagues a little more credit than that. I am anxious to hear how they have changed their position so dramatically from just a few weeks ago.

We will vote on this proposal tomorrow, and I hope that cooler heads will prevail and our colleagues will vote to support it, so we can quickly get the urgent resources needed to those public health services that are studying the virus, working on prevention--including mosquito eradication, which is an important part of this--as well as creating a vaccine.

The minority leader, in particular, spent a considerable amount of time on the floor stressing how dire the need is to fund Zika prevention efforts. He and the rest of his caucus will have a clear choice. They can either play politics at the expense of the mothers and the children across the country, or they can simply decide to do the right thing and support the bipartisan Zika bill.

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