Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I too want to thank the Senator from Florida for his strong effort to get this done. I thank my colleagues who are here speaking as well. There are just a few days left in this legislative session. I am so frustrated that instead of finally coming out of their partisan corner and getting to work to fight the Zika virus, Republican leaders, as we just saw, have doubled down on their politics-first approach.

It has been more than 5 months since President Obama first put forward a strong emergency funding proposal to respond to Zika. Rather than giving that proposal a serious consideration, Republicans simply refused to even consider it. Instead, they found excuse after excuse, delay after delay, and refused to listen to public health experts and women and families who made it clear that Congress needed to act.

They tried to jam a partisan, political bill through Congress on the way out of town on the Fourth of July. Now, look, as we just heard, it was a bill that included harmful, political provisions on everything from women's health to the Confederate flag to the environment.

Now, as this Republican-controlled Congress is headed out of town again, Republicans are somehow trying to claim that they have done everything they need to do when it comes to Zika. They are saying that by putting forward now a partisan bill full of harmful and unnecessary policy riders, they can throw up their hands and go home.

Well, that might be how Republicans in Congress want it to work, but the women and families I talk to could not disagree more. They are worried about what this virus could mean to their families. They want Congress to take action. Republicans should know that Democrats are going to keep pushing until that happens. It is especially frustrating that, despite all of the partisanship and tea party pandering we have seen from the other side of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats in this Senate did reach an agreement on Zika 2 months ago that got the support of every Democrat and nearly half of the Republicans--89 votes.

It did not provide the full amount President Obama requested, but it would have been a strong down payment. It would have helped to accelerate the development of a vaccine. It would strengthen vector control in communities across the United States and the territories and critically expand access to desperately needed family planning and other health care services.

Had Republicans been willing to stay the bipartisan course that we set and push aside the extreme members who insist on using women's health every time as a political football, that agreement would now have been signed into law, and it would be on its way to communities, as we speak. I am deeply frustrated that has not happened.

This is truly urgent. In fact, just last week, the Puerto Rico Department of Health noted a 40-percent increase in the number of pregnant women with Zika on the island. So, frankly, it is appalling that given what we know about the impacts of this virus, Republicans would put an ideological, partisan bill in front of us and say: My way or the highway. That is why today Democrats are here giving Republicans another chance to do the right thing. We are urging them to support women and families instead of the tea party and Heritage Action and join us to get a strong bipartisan emergency funding package to communities at risk because of the Zika virus.

This bill has already passed the Senate, as we know, with 89 votes. Democrats supported it. Most Republicans supported it. So we are here to urge Republican leaders: Don't waste another minute. Join us in moving a bipartisan bill forward. Women and families across the country have waited long enough for action on Zika. Let's not make them wait any longer.

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