Tick-Borne Disease Research Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree that Lyme disease is a concerning public health issue. The CDC estimates there are approximately 300,000 Lyme disease cases each year in the United States.

H.R. 4701, the Tick-Borne Disease Research Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, creates a new working group to develop a summary of research in advances related to Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases, monitor Federal activities, and make recommendations to the Secretary of HHS and hold annual public meetings.

I support ensuring that research in the area of Lyme disease is productive and significant. However, there are still a number of other changes that need to be made to this bill, particularly regarding appointments to and responsibilities of the working group.

Additionally, we do not want the resources needed to maintain this working group to take away from the already strained budgets of current Federal research and surveillance efforts related to Lyme disease.

At the full committee markup of H.R. 4701 in July, Chairman Upton committed to continue to work with myself and other Members to address these concerns before bringing the bill to the floor, and I am disappointed to say that that commitment wasn't honored. While I have reservations about H.R. 4701 in its current form, I would not object to considering it on suspension and advancing the bill here today, but I will continue to advocate for resolving these issues in the bill as it moves forward.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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