OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Zika Response Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

Date: May 18, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs Health and Health Care Government Budget and Spending

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I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, this is the face of Zika: an innocent child harmed with the disease--a disease that we could prevent.
Now, this disease is harming our fellow American citizens in Puerto Rico and on the eastern side of the mainland.

Already, because of Washington's decades of neglect, Puerto Rico's health care system is broken. Last year, 500 doctors packed up and left the island, never to return, and physicians are leaving at the rate of one a day.

While Puerto Rico's health infrastructure is vulnerable, we are seeing this terrible disease take hold. More than 570 cases of infection have already been reported in Puerto Rico, including almost 50 pregnant women, and two deaths.

How dare anyone in this Chamber say that this is political. It is not political when we have people that are dying in Puerto Rico.

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Now, what are House Republicans doing in response? They are proposing less than one-third of the money needed to respond to Zika. They are providing no--zero--money targeted for Puerto Rico.

Mr. Speaker, look at this face again. Shame on this House for this failure. Look at this face and then look in the mirror.

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