Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee for yielding. And I thank her for her great work being involved in the appropriations process, which I shared with her for many years, but a place where so many of our values are reflected by how we allocate our resources. I particularly want to thank Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro for their relentless, persistent, constant advocacy for this Flint money.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, it was February when President Obama sent over a request for $1.9 billion to address the Zika crisis. This was an amount of money based on expert advice and was related to scientific evidence. It related to how we would do research for a vaccine, how we would do vector control, how we would do prevention, and, as our colleagues have mentioned, how we address the issue that this is a very unusual situation because it is sexually transmitted, and we had the obstacle of saying no contraception, which held us up for awhile.

So today, finally, we come to the floor, and I think it is very important that we take the action that we do. But I do want to remind you that $1.1 billion is still $800 million short of the $1.9 billion the President requested. Some of that other money was taken from the Ebola resources, which were sorely needed, and continue to be needed there. So while this is an important, giant step, it is not complete in terms of what we need to do.

The continuing resolution before us must recognize that more than 23,000 Americans, including almost 2,100 pregnant women, have been infected with Zika. The bill falls short, as I said, of the $1.9 billion that top public health officials said is the full amount required to protect American communities.

But I would say this. I think there are some good intentions in a bipartisan way of the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee and others, working with Congresswoman Lowey, Congresswoman DeLauro, and Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, to think in terms of anticipation rather than reaction that perhaps we could have a FEMA- like fund for disasters of this kind that affect the public health. The public health system is a strength of our country, and when it is threatened, we must have the resources to protect it.
So perhaps out of this long delay, one of the things that could come together is a conversation that says, let's have FEMA-like biomedical research, whatever it happens to be, reaction to a public health emergency that enables us to do the research necessary to protect the public health of the American people.

Earlier tonight, the House took an important, long overdue step toward addressing a man-made disaster in Flint, Michigan. The success of the Flint amendment is a tribute to the leadership of Congressman Dan Kildee, who has been an absolute lion--a lion--for the children and families of Flint throughout this crisis. Thanks to Congressman Kildee, we have sent a message of hope to the people of Flint.

It is my hope that in the House-Senate WRDA conference, we can move forward the Flint assistance that overwhelmingly passed the Senate by 95-3 earlier this month. With strong bipartisan support, the amendment passed earlier this month.

While we would have preferred to deliver those funds to the children of Flint in this bill, we are at least on a path to meaningful action, and that is important to mention.

In this bill--and our distinguished chairman made this reference, and certainly our distinguished ranking member on the committee, Mr. Bishop, made the point about what the bill contains to increase the funding for the military and veteran caregivers. So much is in this bill about veterans. And as they say in the military, on the battlefield, we leave no soldier behind; and when they come home, we leave no veteran behind. So many in this room on both sides of the aisle have been champions in that, and certainly our ranking member, Mr. Bishop.

I particularly want to highlight that in this bill, we have increased funding for our military and veteran caregivers, strengthening the support for America's hidden heroes. The hidden heroes were named such by Senator, Secretary--she carries many titles--Elizabeth Dole.

Yesterday, in the United States Capitol Visitor Center theater, hundreds of caregivers of our military and veteran families came together to talk about the shared challenges that they have to be engaged in a Hidden Heroes launch, the launching of cities in conjunction with the actions of the Hidden Heroes initiative. I am proud to be a cochair with the Hidden Heroes Congressional Caucus with Senator McCain and Senator Reed on the Senate side and our chairman, Congressman Jeff Miller, on the House side.

In this bill, there is $10 million to boost the VA caregivers initiatives that will help address the increasing demand on VA services as servicemembers continue to come home to their families. Hidden heroes, do you know how many there are? 5.5 million military and veteran caregivers in our country. How these families raise their children, care for their loved ones, siblings, spouses, children is remarkable, and this legislation recognizes that need to assist with training and all.

We must ensure that the VA can meet the demand of a growing population of caregivers, hiring more staff and coordinators to make sure veterans and their families, friends, and loved ones get the services they earned and deserve.

With this CR, we will keep the government open and prevent any self- inflicted wounds to our economy that had been inflicted before.

I want to especially thank our ranking member, Nita Lowey, for her leadership in helping to craft this bipartisan path forward. I thank our distinguished chairman for his leadership. I extend my gratitude to the Speaker for us coming together to address the issue of Flint, which has enabled us to come forward in this legislation. For that reason, I will be supporting this legislation.

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