Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I rise to take the floor as the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and urge that we adopt an urgent supplemental request to deal with the Zika threat.

This is real. It has been 2 months since the administration sent to Congress an emergency supplemental. We can't wait any longer. The mosquitoes are here. They are actually here. They are here in the United States of America.

I have said--first with wit and now with deep concern--that you can't build a wall to keep the mosquitoes out. The mosquitoes aren't going to pay for this. We need to act, and we need to act now.

This is a compelling public health crisis, and we can do something about it. We take an oath to defend all Americans against enemies foreign and domestic. This is about to be a self-inflicted wound on our own people because of our failure to act.

With no reliable, tested public health interventions on mosquito control--we have to take action to do this. Why? Because as of April 20, there have been close to 900 cases confirmed in the United States of America. We already know they are in three States. The CDC knows it is going to come to at least 30 States in our own country, and it will have incredible consequences, particularly to women.

Over the years, I have heard many eloquent, poignant, and even wrenching speeches about protecting the unborn. They have been deeply moving. We have always tried to find common ground on this. But if you are really for defending the unborn, you have to pass this supplemental.

There are women all over the United States--particularly in these three vulnerable States--there are women in Puerto Rico who are wondering, if they are already pregnant, what their situation is. There are young women and not-so-young women who are concerned about getting pregnant and at the same time being bitten by a mosquito, and there are sparse resources to do mosquito control.

We want to build fences to keep out illegal aliens. OK. We want to bomb the hell out of ISIS and terrorists. We should because we are worried that they are coming at us. But in many of those instances, those are problems that have been difficult to solve. This is not difficult to solve; this is about mosquito control.

I am very concerned that we are just sitting around and that when all is said and done, more is getting said than gets done. We are talking about an emergency supplemental.

The Appropriations Committee has a very clear set of criteria for what is an emergency. First, it has to be urgent. Well, the mosquito season is here. It has to be unforeseen. This was unforeseen and it is temporary. It is mosquito season. It is a confined season. We can do something about it, and we must do something about it. It will have a disproportionate impact on pregnant women and the unborn. There will be children born with the most horrendous, heartbreaking birth defects.

I am of the generation that was the polio generation. My mother wouldn't let my sisters and me go swimming until after June 20 because, somehow or another, in our faith, it was St. John's Day and we thought the water would be warmer. Maybe the saint blessed the water. God bless the saints. God bless people like Dr. Salk, and God bless America that funded the Salk vaccine. I remember children in iron lungs to be kept alive, children in braces who then walked with very difficult canes. Those who survive bear this the rest of their lives.

Look at what we are facing here, and we know it. This is not unknown, nor is it unmanageable. It will be a national disgrace if we don't act.

In my own home State, I have a Republican Governor, Governor Larry Hogan. Guess what. Governor Hogan is acting. This isn't about Democrats and Republicans. Governor Hogan acted. He declared April 24 to 30 Zika Awareness Week. He ordered his health department to coordinate educational events with local health departments. They also spent $130,000 of State money to develop 10,000 transmission kits to begin to deal with this. My Republican Governor has taken action.

Also, in Anne Arundel County--the county that is the home of the State capital, again headed up by a Republican county executive--they received 850 kits. They are going to have townhall meetings to talk with the agricultural officials about prevention and mosquito control. We have a Republican Governor and a Republican county executive who are acting.

Then there is Howard County, where the health department is planning to distribute 450 kits to obstetric and gynecological practices to protect pregnant women. Again, a Republican county executive working with his administration is taking action, spending local money when this is a national problem.

I am saying this because my own Governor and the county executives are acting.

In Baltimore City, which has a Democratic mayor--she listened to the warnings coming from the World Health Organization, the CDC, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and is taking action. Baltimore is now spraying, taking mosquito control action, and so on. They are spending over $500,000 of local money, of which we don't have a lot.

So, hello, Maryland is acting. We need to act. And I say this because we are spending local money to deal with a national and international problem. So please, let's now--whatever differences we have on other bills, please let's take up this urgent supplemental.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source