Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, yesterday I joined millions of Americans in celebrating the Supreme Court's decision that reaffirms a woman's right to access reproductive health care. This was the most important Supreme Court decision in decades to protect a woman's access to reproductive health care.

I listened to my colleague just now, and, yes, the amount in the bill is the same. But this is not the same bill. This bill contains poison pills that will pay for the funding for Zika on the backs of the people of Puerto Rico and funding for Planned Parenthood. So today, in spite of yesterday's celebration of the Supreme Court's decision, it is clear we are reminded once again the fight to protect a woman's reproductive rights is not over.

I was dismayed last week when House Republicans chose to play politics with a national public health emergency to continue their crusade against Planned Parenthood. The package we will be voting on this morning is profoundly irresponsible. Senators from both parties worked hard to forge a compromise Zika funding measure that would have provided the tools we need to prevent an outbreak. Instead, we will shortly be voting on an underfunded measure riddled with poison pills.

This package is not equal to the crisis before us. It fails to recognize the real threat facing American women from Zika this summer. Zika is not just a mosquito-borne disease. It can also be sexually transmitted. That is why attacking Planned Parenthood in this bill is so foolish. Limiting access to family planning services now would put millions more women at risk of contracting Zika and giving birth to a child with microcephaly.

The United States is fortunate not to have a widespread outbreak of Zika yet, but in Hawaii we are already feeling the impact of this virus. So far there have been 10 confirmed cases of Zika in Hawaii, and one child has been born with microcephaly.

To meet this challenge, I have convened key leaders on Zika in Hawaii, including Governor David Ige, Hawaii director of health Dr. Virginia Pressler, health care providers, and Dr. Elliott Parks, who is developing a Zika vaccine on Oahu. They all shared one message: Federal funding right now is critical to get ahead of a widespread Zika outbreak. Dr. Parks has been using private funding to develop his vaccine, which could turn around our fight against Zika, and an infusion of Federal funds now could push him across the finish line.

This summer is a critical moment in the fight against the Zika virus. In Hawaii, we already saw the devastating impact of a vector-borne disease when we confronted a major outbreak of Dengue. We need the same national commitment and investment to fight Zika that we provided to fight Ebola.

Months have already passed since the President sent down his emergency funding request for Zika. We must act now by passing a clean supplemental spending bill, with no harmful riders to women.

Zika is a public health crisis in the making, and I completely disagree with my colleagues who continue to say that we should support this bill because it is what we have already agreed to. It is not. It is a profoundly different bill that continues the Republican attacks against women's reproductive rights.

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