Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017--Motion to Proceed--
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I share the regret of my colleague from Wisconsin that our friends across the aisle--the dysfunction that characterized the last Congress, when they were in charge, is unfortunately creeping into this Congress as well, in spite of roughly a year and a half of relatively good productivity by the Congress on a bipartisan basis. To come in and make objections against commonsense ways to protect whistleblowers determined to try to make sure we keep our commitments to our veterans is just--well, it is shameful, and I share the disappointment of my colleagues.
Moments ago, our Democratic colleagues failed another test, a test of whether they care more about American families or about special interest groups. This is what I am talking about.
The test our Democratic colleagues failed is one to see whether they care more about averting these sort of devastating birth defects caused by the Zika virus or whether they care more about the special interest groups that raise money off of legislation designed to solve problems and prevent public health disasters like this. Unfortunately, they made the wrong choice. They failed the test.
This is what the Zika virus can do. This is an example of microcephaly or, basically, shrunken skull. We can imagine what this does to the baby's brain, what this means in terms of trying to provide medical care by a loving mother and father, trying to make sure this baby, no matter how long it may live, has at least as comfortable a life as it can have until it passes away. Of course, the prognosis--the life expectancy of a baby with microcephaly is not good, and that is an understatement.
We know Zika is a preventable disease. We know, with mosquito eradication, we know with proper precautions people can take--not leaving standing water in places where mosquitoes can propagate--if we do our job by providing the adequate funding needed to avert this public health crisis, someday--and, hopefully, not too long, not too far away--we can actually develop a vaccine so pregnant women and women of child-bearing age don't have to worry or live in fear that this might happen to their baby.
Just yesterday, the Harris County Public Health Office in Houston--as the Presiding Officer knows--confirmed that the first baby in Texas was born with Zika-related microcephaly. This tragedy depicted by this photograph is real and it is at our doorstep. This particular case involves a pregnant woman who had traveled to South America, where we know Zika virus is present, but all of our public health officials are telling us it is slowly working its way up from Central and South America and it is literally at our doorstep.
This is not a time to refuse to do our duty and simply coast through the rest of the summer. We are talking about lifelong irreversible problems that take lives and affect families for years to come. Experts across the country that I have visited with, in Galveston at the National Lab, at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, say we need to act, and we need to act now.
They are not alone. It was just last May when our Democratic colleagues asked us to act and to act with urgency, but today they turned down the very money they argued for last May, when they decided to gamble with the lives of children like this instead of protecting them. As I said, they ignored their own calls to get this done quickly, and they have refused to pass urgent measures that would protect our country from a public health crisis.
As I said when I started, this was a test today to see whether our Democratic colleagues cared more about babies like this or special interest groups, and they failed the test. It is as simple as that.
I want to make sure everyone understands how we got here.
Two months ago, a bipartisan agreement was introduced to handle the Zika threat. That was 2 months ago. Senator Blunt of Missouri and Senator Murray of Washington worked together, as we are supposed to do, to come up with a bipartisan compromise, in this case, to an appropriations bill. About a week after it was introduced in this Chamber, it passed overwhelmingly. Not one Democrat opposed the $1.1 billion appropriations amendment that was attached to the VA-Military Construction appropriations bill. Not one Democrat opposed it because, until recently, they seemed to agree with us that this is a major public health crisis in the making--particularly, as I said, because we expect the mosquito-borne virus to hit the mainland in places like Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and other warm parts of the country. We expect it to hit the U.S. mainland in full force as temperatures continue to rise this summer.
The legislation we passed in the Senate was reconciled, as it is supposed to be, in a conference committee with different legislation passed by the House. That bicameral, bipartisan compromise is what we considered earlier today--after Senate Democrats decided to block it for the first time a few weeks ago. It seems that after they called upon us to pass the bill in May, they have decided in the interim it is not as urgent as they once said.
For months now, Senate Democrats have talked about the need to get this legislation passed to prepare us for the Zika virus, and it was the Democratic leader who said this on May 23, 2016--May 23. It is now July 14. He said:
Instead of gambling with the health and safety of millions of Americans, Republicans should give our nation the money it needs to fight Zika, and they should do it now. Not next month, not in the fall--now.
This is the Democratic leader. When we delivered on his request that he made on May 23, he voted no--even though he and every Senate Democrat voted yes to pass the Senate bill at exactly the same level that this conference report provided.
Then, in an amazing reversal, Senator Murray of Washington--who, as I said a moment ago, quite responsibly worked with Senator Blunt from Missouri to come up with the original amendment funding this Zika prevention effort at $1.1 billion--she then in effect voted against her own amendment. Back in May, she was singing a different tune. She said:
Families and communities are expecting us to act. Parents are wondering if their babies will be born safe and healthy. In Congress, we should do everything we can to tackle this virus without any further delay.
That was on May 26, 2016. But today, again, this same Senator who said these words on May 26 voted no.
We have to ask ourselves why. What do they consider is more important than stopping this? What could it possibly be? What could be more important, more demanding? What could be a higher priority for these Senate colleagues than voting to fund the research on prevention that would stop this from happening to one more baby in America?
Unfortunately, the hypocrisy we have heard doesn't end there.
On June 20, the senior Senator from New York, the next Democratic leader in waiting, said: ``Every day we wait, every day is increasing the risk that we will have problems with Zika.'' That is not exactly a profound statement, but it is a true statement.
My point is that people are pretty disgusted with what they see here in Washington these days, where rather than trying to find consensus, people really find ways to say no and to block important legislation like this. This is the very definition of dysfunction.
I have to tell you that I am beyond disappointed at the hypocrisy demonstrated by all of our Senate Democrats voting for the funding at the $1.1 billion level, only now for the second time to vote against this rescue appropriation to prevent this sort of thing from happening. It really is beyond frustrating. It is disgusting.
If there is anything good, any good news in all of this, I would say that, fortunately, months ago the Obama administration finally agreed with Senate Republicans to set aside more than half a billion dollars of unspent funds for the Ebola crisis. There was roughly $589 million that was set aside and reprogrammed for that purpose, but that is no excuse for failing to act comprehensively as our Senate Democrats have urged us to do time and again.
This is nothing to play around with. This is not a trivial matter. This is a life-altering, life-shortening, devastating birth defect that is preventable. What could be more important? It is our job to send this bill to the President's desk. As long as our Senate Democratic colleagues refuse to do so, as long as they refuse to defend the health and well-being of Americans across this country, as long as they refuse another chance to protect our children from devastating birth defects, there is not much we can do about it.
There is something the American people can do about it, and they can call and they can write to their Senator. They can say: I don't care what your objection is; it better be pretty darned important if you are going to block funding that would prevent this from happening to my baby or to babies in my family or in my neighborhood.
Health experts across our country need resources to study the virus, to contain the virus, to keep it from spreading, and, hopefully, eventually to develop a vaccine. For our Democratic colleagues to block this legislation again months after saying it was so urgent amounts to tying the hands of our doctors, our local public health officials, and researchers from city to city. Clearly, the responsibility rests with them.
When we see locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus in the United States caused by mosquitoes carrying that virus, the responsibility will be with them for refusing to act in light of the clarion call by public health officials that this is a real public health emergency.
To take this bill hostage is not only hypocritical; it is profoundly irresponsible. I don't know how some of our colleagues can sleep at night knowing that they are putting these babies and their families at risk. There is simply no excuse for blocking this critical funding. As I said, there is a test that was taken today, and our Democratic colleagues once again failed the test. Condemning the Attack in Dallas
Mr. President, on a separate and equally somber note, today Senator Cruz and I submitted a simple resolution that would condemn the horrific attack in Dallas of last week that took the lives of five police officers and wounded several more. It is a small way but an important way that we can honor those whom we have lost, express sympathy to their families, and take a stand against violence and hatred targeting police officers. I hope this Chamber adopts this resolution without delay.
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