Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, on another matter, earlier today this Chamber voted to move the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act conference report forward. This legislation has been the work of bipartisanship from the beginning, and it sailed through the Senate earlier this year.

Now, this bicameral agreement authorizes even more resources to combat the epidemic of heroin and prescription painkiller abuse that is tearing families apart across the country. Over the last few years, we have heard the stories and we have seen a dangerous trend of heroin and prescription drug abuse. In my State alone, it is estimated that these deaths have increased by as much as 80 percent in recent years. There is no doubt this is a serious issue. This is not just a bipartisan issue; this is a nonpartisan issue. Now is our chance to get something done.

I am grateful for the hard work and the leadership of the junior Senator from Ohio, Mr. Portman, who has shepherded this bill from the beginning to where we are today, along with Senator Ayotte from New Hampshire, Senator Blunt from Missouri, and Chairman Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I want to thank all of them for their role in getting this bill across the finish line. Now we need to complete our work and pass it so we can get it to the President's desk. Zika Virus Funding

Of course, there is a lot more we should be doing for the American people this week, but unfortunately, instead of advancing bills that would help prevent birth defects from the Zika virus and divert a public health crisis, our colleagues want to talk about climate change. I understand many of them feel this is a serious matter and a priority, but what they have been basically doing is beating up on a group of nonprofits and private citizens no one outside the beltway has even heard of, and for what? For having the temerity to exercise their rights under the Constitution, their rights to free speech and free expression. Heaven forbid someone should utter words that somebody across the aisle might disagree with. The answer, as we know, to speech you disagree with is more speech, not less speech. It should not be used to try to squash, intimidate, coerce the people you disagree with. That is not the America I know, and that is not what the Constitution provides for.

I hope our colleagues will get their priorities straight. This is about preventing devastating birth defects in children infected with the Zika virus. We can have a discussion about climate change-- hopefully without the attempt to intimidate and attack people who express opinions our colleagues don't agree with--but I suggest that our priorities ought to be a little bit different.

It is not just that this is a conscience effort to ignore the most pressing issues facing our country, such as fighting the Zika virus or funding our troops; they don't even want to have an honest conversation about the policies they are peddling because they are not interested in a debate, they want to stamp out contrary views.

For all their fanfare about climate change, this is not the most urgent thing we need to do this week. They don't talk about how the policies are advocating what actually stifled free speech and hurt the American economy and cut jobs. We have had debates and votes in this body about some of these sweeping proposals to deal with the problem that may or may not actually come to pass. There have been other challenges we faced in this country that have been overcome due to the inventiveness, innovation, and genius of the American people in coming up with solutions.

I hope our colleagues who have latched on to this as a way to divert attention from the imminent threat of the Zika virus and the need to fund our troops will come back into a zone--not a logic-free zone-- where we can talk about these issues. And instead of trying to score political points with outside groups who are happy to raise money off of this issue, we need to get back to reality and back to the work at hand.

Quite frankly, it is hard to believe this is where we are, with our Democratic friends arguing against bills that would help prevent birth defects in our children and support our troops. Instead, they want to grandstand on climate change. I hope they get a reality check soon and stop quibbling over bicameral, bipartisan pieces of legislation.

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