Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017--Conference Report
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I thought I had gotten to the point where I wasn't surprised at some of the rhetoric we hear from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, particularly the Democratic leader when he claims that we haven't gotten anything done in the U.S. Congress since Republicans have been in the majority. I guess to the extent that he says that and there is nobody who corrects it, then people might actually believe it.
I just want to point out from the beginning some of the important work we have been able to do on a bipartisan basis. I see our friend the Senator from Tennessee here. He has been the point man for so many of these pieces of legislation, such as the education reform bill, among others that I will mention, but the fact is that since Republicans have been in the majority after the election in 2014, more than 140 pieces of legislation have been signed into law, and 240-plus bills have passed the Senate alone. We have also had, by and large, an open amendment process where any Senator who thinks they have a better idea on a bill can come to the floor and offer an amendment and get a vote on it. So compare the 240 amendment votes in this Congress to the 15 when Senator Reid was majority leader in the 113th Congress. People need to know that his representation isn't borne out by the facts. It is not even close.
I was reminded of the quote from Abraham Lincoln. He defined a hypocrite as a man who murdered his parents and then pleaded for mercy because he was an orphan. It is true that we find ourselves in the current messy posture primarily because of the obstruction of our Democratic colleagues on the other side.
We were hoping that we would get back to what we internally call regular order, which is a more transparent process where each of the 12 appropriations bills can be passed out of the Appropriations Committee, come across the floor, be amended and voted on, then matched up with what our friends and colleagues in the House do, and then sent on to the President for his signature. Instead of that normally functioning Congress, there are the filibusters of our Democratic colleagues led by the Democratic leader who is claiming that the Congress has become dysfunctional all of a sudden. It is because of their actions. They are the ones that have blocked the appropriations process. This is why we find ourselves in the remaining few weeks of September trying to figure out how we pay the bills, how we keep the government up and running.
I have a list of legislation that makes up that 240 bills and 140 laws written that were signed into law.
Mr. President, we find ourselves voting again on a $1.1 billion appropriation to combat the Zika virus. There has been a lot of discussion about the Zika virus. As we have come to learn, this is a virus carried by a certain species of mosquito and because of summer weather and because the Zika virus seems to be coming our way from Central and South America, we figured it was important for us to do something about it.
On the high-tech end, our scientists need to come up with a vaccine to make sure that pregnant women don't have to worry about birth defects in their unborn children, typified by this chart that demonstrates a condition known as microcephaly, where literally the head is shrunken along with the brain. One can imagine the prognosis for this child to be very poor, and nothing but heartache is in store for this child's family. This is what our Democratic colleagues are risking by continuing to filibuster the spending that we have provided for in this appropriations bill--$1.1 billion.
It is also important to do what sometimes is referred to as the low- tech part of this as well. Recently I was in Houston, TX, with some of my friends from the Harris County Public Health district. They were demonstrating to me how they trapped mosquitoes. The Culex mosquito can spread other types of virus, but the Aedes aegypti mosquito carries the Zika virus. There is fantastic work being done at the local level by our public health districts to monitor the mosquito population and then test it to see whether they can detect the presence of the Zika virus. When they do, that of course directs the spraying effort by the public health district. One of the most important things to do is control the mosquito population. It cannot be eliminated entirely, and spraying without any particular target is a waste of time and money. But it can be targeted, and that is what is happening in places like Houston, TX, and in the Harris County Public Health district.
I spent an afternoon with public health officials at what is called the mosquito and vector control unit. Of course, Houston is a big place. Harris County, where Houston is located, is the third largest county in the country by population, and it covers 1,777 square miles. It is bigger than the State of Rhode Island. The reason I mention that is to just consider the idea of going out to spray 1,777 square miles. That doesn't make any sense. That is why the work being done by the mosquito and vector control unit is so important--to actually target the spraying where it is needed most.
The most important thing we can do as citizens is to educate ourselves and to prevent ourselves from being bitten by the mosquito in the first place. Some of that has to do with the clothing we wear and also wearing insect repellent, particularly for pregnant women. The danger of this particular birth defect is real, and it is important that women of childbearing age take care to protect themselves. Part of the reason I visited with the public health officials in Houston was to not only educate myself but to help raise public awareness of what we can do as individual citizens to protect ourselves. I met with one of the surveillance entomologists; it is quite a title. A surveillance entomologist with the mosquito and vector control unit is a fellow I met who has a wonderful name. His name is Max Vigilant--what a great name for a surveillance entomologist in Harris County, TX. He gave me a glimpse of what he and his colleagues are doing every day to safeguard their communities, but they cannot do this alone. That is why this funding that has been blocked on numerous occasions by our Democratic colleagues over ridiculous objections makes no sense whatsoever.
I happened to see that the senior Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, sent out a tweet this afternoon urging Senate Republicans to pass Zika funding, to which I responded: Well, you blocked it, Chuck--which is true. And they continue to block it.
It has unfortunately fallen to local leaders such as County Judge Ed Emmett in Harris County and people like Max Vigilant to take care of this pending crisis because frankly the dysfunction that is occurring in Congress is led by the Democratic leader. So I think it is important to set the record straight. I am grateful we have leaders at the local and State level who step up when the Federal Government seems incapable of doing so.
But now it is time for the Federal Government to step up. Why our Democratic colleagues would risk this horrific birth defect for political reasons is just lost on me. It makes no sense whatsoever. I might add that not only is it spread by mosquitoes, there is now some demonstrated cases or proven cases of sexual transmission of the Zika virus.
As we know, our friends in Florida in particular have had domestically transmitted cases of Zika virus and are working hard to combat the mosquito there and to contain the virus and to prevent this sort of terrible result, but for the health of our country and for the protection of all our children, let's get this compromise legislation done.
No one should doubt the gravity of the threat or the long-term health consequences of failing to get our work done. So I hope our Democratic colleagues put their words into action and vote to send additional resources to those communities across the country that are already working hard to defeat the Zika virus.
I will conclude by saying, I implore our Democratic colleagues, including the senior Senator from Nevada, the Democratic leader, to quit saying things that are demonstrably not true. We have worked hard, many times over the Democratic leader's objection. I can think of two of them that stand out in my mind: for trade promotion authority and for a long-term highway bill, where he did not support it and he actively tried to block it. So we had to find other Democrats and work with the White House to get it done. We have been able to pass a number of important bills but very little with his help because, for some reason, he seems intent on trying to cause this Congress to be as dysfunctional as it was when he was the leader, but it is not going to happen. We are working with people of good faith on both sides of the aisle and, when we can, with the White House, to do the important work of the American people.
Ending Management by Crisis/Cliff
First multi-year Highway Bill since 2005--longest since 1998, First time enhanced small business expensing was made permanent, First time a prohibition on Internet Access Taxes is made permanent, First time cycle of patching Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) since 1997, First major Energy Bill passes Senate since the Bush Administration, First long- term FAA Bill in almost a decade. Helping those Who Need it Most
First major legislation confronting America's opioid crisis (CARA), Protected Victims of Trafficking, Reauthorized Adam Walsh. Conservative Priorities
Bill to repeal Obamacare & defund Planned Parenthood to the President's desk, Preventing an activist liberal majority on the Supreme Court, NLRB ambush election CRA, Pain Capable abortion ban, Sanctuary Cities/Kate's Law, Syrian refugee pause, Audit the Fed, First time Senate passes measures overturning Obama-era EPA overreach: Waters of the US (WOTUS), Carbon rules on existing power plants, Carbon rules on new power plants.
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Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven) would have voted ``yea''.
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Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven) would have voted ``yea.''
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