Pelosi Floor Remarks in Opposition to Republicans’ Inadequate Response to the Zika Crisis
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today on the House Floor in opposition to Republicans’ recklessly inadequate response to the Zika crisis. Below are the Leader’s remarks:
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his forceful arguments against this reckless rule that is before us today.
“I rise, Mr. Speaker, in strong opposition to the rule and really in a state of wonderment – wonderment about how on earth this Congress of the United States can be so insensitive to a challenge to the American people. It is our responsibility to honor our preamble to the Constitution, to promote the general welfare – that’s in the preamble of our Constitution, which we take an oath to defend.
“The distinguished gentleman from Oklahoma, whom I respect, said: just be patient. No. No. Ninety-four days since the President of the United States asked for the amount of resources necessary to address the Zika crisis – an amount of money that was requested by the scientists, documented by the urgency of this challenge for the research and for the prevention and for the resources needed to address this public health emergency.
“I rise not only as the House Democratic Leader; I rise as a mother and a grandmother. And I speak to parents and grandparents in this body, because that’s all I’m allowed to speak to. The questions that I have for you are: how can we ignore the President’s scientifically-based request? Expressed in the words of Dr. Fauci – the Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health – a person, a health care leader in our country, a researcher, a scientist who has been described by President George Herbert Walker Bush as a hero, as a hero in his work for the American people and their public health. Dr. Fauci says: ‘If we don’t get the money that the President has asked for, the $1.9 billion, that is going to have a very serious negative impact on our ability to get the job done.’
“And another scientist, Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] – the public health agency to stop this threat – he said: ‘Never before in history has there been a situation where a bite from a mosquito can result in a devastating fetal malformation.’ Testimony went on to say that we’re talking about children with irreversible brain damage who will now be able to walk, talk, see or hear; children whose care over a lifetime is estimated to cost more than $10 million. The money is one thing. The devastation to that child and to that family is far more consequential.
“So the $1.9 billion is a great deal of money. It’s an emergency – a small price to pay to prevent irreversible brain damage in our children. A small price to pay instead of saying to families: don’t think about having children now because of this epidemic.
“Republicans are treating the threat of Zika with so little seriousness as they decided to use the crisis as an opportunity to eliminate protections for the water that our children drink.
“The so-called Zika Vector Control Act the Republicans are adding to this package this morning that they’re asking you to vote for is nothing but a long-standing and craven, repackaged Republican effort to gut the Clean Water Act. It is a pesticide Trojan horse that will do nothing to protect Americans from Zika.
“This is really a dishonoring of our responsibility to protect and defend our fellow Americans. As our distinguished Member of the Rules Committee [Congressman Jim McGovern] mentioned, this is a defense issue. It’s about protecting the American people. This proposal today puts forth one-third of what the President has asked for. One-third. People say: ‘Why aren’t you happy with one-third of the loaf?’ It’s not one-third of a loaf. It’s one-third of a shoe. You cannot get there from here with one-third. It’s really an insult to the scientists who have spoken out.
“And so I started with a question. It’s really – actually it’s one-third of the President’s request but one-fifth of what the CDC has requested for the public health activities. We must elevate, we must elevate the importance of the public health responsibility that we have.
“If we had a natural disaster, FEMA has funds to come to the rescue of the American people. That is our compact with the American people – to help them in ways that they could never help themselves because of the scope of the challenge. This is no less a challenge. In fact, it will probably result in more loss of life, malformation of children – of unborn children. And on top of that, think of the negative impact it will have in our country: distrust to travel to certain regions in our country.
“This is so reckless. Just when I thought I had seen it all on the part of the Republicans in the Congress to disregard meeting the needs of the American people, along comes this; incomprehensible to explain to anybody why this might be a proposal worthy of the Floor of the House, worthy of the public health challenge to the American people, worthy of our concerns about the American people. My Republican colleagues, you have outdone yourselves today. What you are doing is reckless. In this bill, we should be meeting this challenge the way we meet emergencies, with adequate resources – which will end up saving money because they will be an investment in the health of the American people.
“Over 90 days since the President has made the request. I’ll just say this one other thing because this is not our role to instill fear, but we have to face the challenge in a very clear-eyed way. This virus from this mosquito is sexually transmitted. We have no idea – but it could be as long as 18 months – how long it will reside in a gentleman who might be bitten. Could be over a year, could be shorter. But it is not one night. Secondly, if you get bitten by this mosquito when you travel someplace where it might be pervasive, you not only get bitten yourself, you bring it home. Again, it’s sexually transmitted, but it’s transmitted in even more pervasive way. Any other garden-variety mosquito that would bite you who have already been bitten by the other mosquito, now is a carrier of that virus. You turn garden-variety mosquitoes into an army on the assault of the public health of the American people.
“So, again, as a mother and a grandmother, as a parent, fathers, grandfathers who serve here think of the children, think of the risk. Think of the responsibility that we have. Think of the irresponsibility of this bill before us today and the reckless, reckless disregard for public health in our country that the Republicans are putting forth on this legislation – and vote ‘no.’ I yield back the balance of my time.”