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Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I have been on this floor many times talking about Zika. I think some people believe in the old adage ``out of sight out of mind.'' It is equally as much, if not more, of a crisis--an international crisis--as was the Ebola crisis. Yet do you remember how everyone became so suddenly concerned about Ebola when there were only a couple of cases that showed up in the United States? Remember how we in this body suddenly rushed in and appropriated on an emergency basis several multiples of billions of dollars to address the Ebola crisis? I remember how successful that was even though Ebola is still raging in parts of western Africa. We are continuing to try to help out those African nations so it will not spread across the world and especially to keep it from coming here to our shores.
The same thing is happening with the Zika virus, but people are not recognizing it. That is why this Senator continues to talk about it-- because we need the resources necessary to stop the spread of Zika. It is only a matter of time before there is a local transmission in the continental United States. What is a local transmission? Well, we know they put a fancy name on it. It is called vector. What is vector? The vector is a strain of mosquito called the aegypti. And, by the way, it is math. What happens across a lot of the coastal United States and southern United States in June? It gets hot, the rains come, and what comes along with that? Swarms of mosquitoes.
Since this particular strain, the aegypti, is prevalent across the United States, up the west coast, the Pacific coast, up the Atlantic seaboard--much further than what you consider to be southern States--lo and behold, this strain of mosquito carries the Zika virus, and when it sticks its sticker into a human being and starts drawing blood, the virus is transmitted into the blood of the human being. Now you have a human carrier of the Zika virus that can be transmitted through sexual contact. But, lo and behold, if the carrier is a pregnant female, then that Zika virus--and the virus itself sometimes doesn't manifest itself in many ways; it might be like a mild form of the flu. But if it is a pregnant female, then there are some disastrous consequences coming ahead. Those are the horrible pictures we have seen--the microcephaly. The virus gets in and attacks the fetus and does not allow the fetus to develop, particularly with regard to the structure of the head and the brain, and that is what causes these terrible family tragedies.
Last week we voted for $1.1 billion as part of an appropriations bill. We turned down Senator Rubio's and my proposal of $1.9 billion.
By the way, did you notice a Republican and a Democrat coming together, saying: This is tough in our State. In our State there are well over 120 cases. There are also multiple pregnant women in Florida who are infected.
Nationwide there are 1,200 Americans in 48 States that we know of who have been infected with the virus. We know that in Puerto Rico--the Centers for Disease Control tells us that 25 percent of that island's population of our fellow American citizens is going to be infected. That is in Puerto Rico alone--800,000 people. As a result of that infection in Puerto Rico, we saw the first case of microcephaly linked to the Zika virus reported in Puerto Rico. That was determined because of a miscarriage, and the fetus had all the markings of microcephaly. Prior to that, the CDC had confirmed the first Zika-related death in the United States that had also occurred in Puerto Rico.
While we here in the Senate last week turned down $1.9 billion, which was the administration's request, we appropriated $1.1 billion. But guess what they did down at the other end of the hallway in the U.S. Capitol Building. They did only $622 million. And they want this to go to a conference committee to be worked out over time? Folks, it is late May and summer is upon us. These cases are going to become increasingly apparent.
Now why don't we add Brazil into the mix? It is hot and humid. By the way, there is something happening in a few months in Brazil: People from all over the world are going to Brazil for the Olympics, and right now Brazil has more than 100,000 cases of Zika virus this year alone.
This is a very dangerous emergency, and we are playing around and delaying. Congress has not stepped up and is failing the American people by not treating it as an emergency. It ought to be clear that it is up to us to protect our constituents, to stop the spread of the virus, and to do everything the administration has requested, including replacing the multiple hundreds of millions they raided out of the Ebola fund to try to get a jump-start on this because the Congress was sitting around on its hands, not willing to give the money. They borrowed from the Ebola fund, and we need to replenish that fund. That is a part of the $1.9 billion request.
So, Madam President, I am going to ask unanimous consent that we proceed to a vote on this emergency. We ought to be trying to do the right thing. We ought to give the President and the public health experts the resources they need, that they tell us they have to have to stop the spread of this virus.
5243, that all after the enacting clause be stricken; that the Nelson-Rubio substitute amendment to provide the $1.9 billion in funding to enhance the Federal response and preparedness with respect to the Zika virus be agreed to; that there be up to 1 hour of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; and that upon the use or yielding back of time, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, with no intervening action or debate.
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Mr. NELSON. Madam President, the Senator from Wyoming knows my affection for him as a friend. The Senator from Wyoming is a great Senator from the State of Wyoming, and Wyoming does not have the threat as the southern States do in the United States as the summer comes upon us.
The Senator has referred to the Cornyn amendment. The Cornyn amendment allowed for $1.1 billion, which was voted down. It was paid for by raiding the Affordable Care Act, and that is just not going to happen.
Whenever an emergency happens, the tradition of the U.S. Congress is, in fact, to provide for that emergency on a basis that you don't have to go and rob some other piece of funding in order to pay for it. When a hurricane hits and if it hits Florida, I certainly hope you all are going to appropriate emergency funds. If there is an earthquake or the eruption of a volcano, fires--whatever the natural or manmade disaster that occurs--that is what a government does. One of the functions of government is to protect the health and welfare of the people, and sometimes that calls for the funding of an emergency.
We don't have a lot of children with microcephaly that have been born from pregnant women here, but that is coming. We have already seen it. Wait until all of the Americans, including in the northern tier of States and the western United States, go to Rio for the Olympics. Wait until there is a further migration out of Puerto Rico, which is causing a brain drain because of the financial condition of that island and which we are not helping them with as we continue to dither about their financial distress. Wait until that migration of American citizens comes more and more from Puerto Rico to the continental United States and brings with them those infected with the Zika virus. All of this is about to happen, and it is about to explode. This Senator suspects that a lot of the people who are objecting to moving on this on an emergency basis are going to rue the day when they see the consequences.
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