Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Thank you very much.
Mr. President, why are we facing a continuing resolution to fund the government of the United States of America? Because our budget expires on October 1.
It is a new budget. We are supposed to pass spending bills, appropriations bills, budget bills that will cover this next 12 months of the fiscal year, and we have failed. The Senate Appropriations Committee, which I am proud to serve on, has done its job on a bipartisan basis. In fact, we have reported out all 12 spending bills but had very little luck on the floor of the Senate moving those bills forward. The first one we took up was the military construction bill, which passed with good support, and was sent over to the House of Representatives. They loaded it up with every political issue they could think of for this campaign season, and that bill started floundering at that point. That is why, at this moment in time, we need to pass a continuing resolution. This is no way to run a government but, to be honest with you, both political parties have been guilty of finding themselves in this mess before, where we have had to buy a little extra time into the fiscal year in order to agree on the budget for the remainder of that year.
What the President said to the Republican leaders of the House and Senate last week is, if you want to do this continuing resolution bill, just keep the government running until you can agree on all the appropriations bills, give me a continuing resolution bill until December 9, and--if you would--please acknowledge that we are facing a public health crisis with the Zika virus. The President raised that issue because in February of this year, 7 months ago, he notified Congress this was going to happen; that we were going to see these mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus infecting people in Puerto Rico and in the United States and endangering mothers who were carrying babies.
In February, the President asked for Congress to give $1.9 billion to eradicate the mosquitoes, to lessen the danger, and, equally important, to develop a vaccine. This is a vaccine which frankly, when it is developed, all of us will want to take, one that protects all of us from Zika virus infection in the future.
What did the Republican-controlled Congress do with the President's emergency public health crisis request for Zika? Nothing. They ignored it until May of this year, when the Senate finally passed, with 89 votes, Democrats and Republicans together--it was not $1.9 billion but $1.1 billion to deal with the Zika virus, this emergency public health crisis. It took 3 months. It should have taken 3 days.
In May, with 89 votes, we sent a bill from the Senate over to the House of Representatives to deal with this crisis. What did they do with it? Instead of passing the bipartisan bill the President requested, they decided to load it up with politically controversial issues that they thought would help them in this election cycle. Listen to some of the things they added to this bill, this emergency public health crisis bill.
First, they put in the provision that there was a prohibition of funding any efforts by Planned Parenthood on family planning under this bill. Why? Because mothers, facing the prospect of a pregnancy and the possibility of an infection, would seek family planning help at Planned Parenthood. Two million American mothers did last year.
They put this provision in to defund Planned Parenthood. They knew that was going to be a fight. They put it in anyway. They eliminated $500 million from the Veterans' Administration funding to process veterans' claims--something we desperately need. They took the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to monitor the chemicals that would be used to kill the mosquitoes. And then, to add insult to injury, they put in a provision that said you could display Confederate flags in U.S. military cemeteries. What does that have to do with the Zika virus? Nothing. It was political gamesmanship. It was going nowhere. The President would never sign it under those circumstances, and they knew it.
Now the President says: Give me a clean Zika funding bill and we will
move forward with this continuing resolution.
Finally, last week the Senate Republican leader gave us that clean bill as part of the CR, and if that were all he did, we would be finished, we would be home, but he kept moving forward in other areas of controversy. You see, there was terrible flooding in Louisiana, and a lot of innocent people were hurt. They lost their homes and businesses. It has been a custom in the Congress to rally to the aid of victims of disasters. I have voted for that over and over again, for maybe every State across the United States, because I knew the day would come--and it has--when Illinois would need a helping hand, and I wanted to be there for my colleagues.
So we said this to the leader on the Republican side: If you want to help Louisiana--and I do--also help the people living in Flint, MI.
Remember when their water supply was contaminated? There were 100,000 people ingesting lead, when there is zero tolerance in our blood streams for that. The damage is obvious. Imagine 9,000 children in Flint poisoned with lead-contaminated water. That happened. In that poor city, they are still drinking water out of bottles every single day.
So we said to the Republican leader: Yes, we care about Louisiana.
You should care about Flint, MI. If you are going to help Louisiana, help those poor people in Flint who are facing this kind of contamination.
He refused. He said: There will be money for Louisiana but no money for Michigan.
Why? We think there are victims in both places, and in the past the Senate and Congress have risen to those tragedies and those demands. I have done it on a bipartisan basis. It makes no difference to me that we have two Republican Senators in Louisiana, and it should make no difference to Senator McConnell that we have two Democratic Senators in Michigan. Let's think about the Americans who are hurting in both places instead of playing political games. But no--Senator McConnell said: We will help Louisiana; we will provide no help to Flint, MI.
That is unfair, and it complicates the situation.
If that were all he did, it would be bad enough, but Senator McConnell has a pet project that he needs to put into this bill. Listen to what it is. It is a prohibition at the Securities and Exchange Commission that would promulgate a rule to require America's corporations to publicly disclose the campaign contributions they are making. Under Citizens United, in warped thinking at the Supreme Court, it was determined that corporations are persons when it comes to contributing money. Look what has happened--a flood of millions of dollars. Republicans were boasting that they raised $43 million in their super PAC in August, and they got $20 million last week from Sheldon Adelson, a rich man who lives out in Nevada. Oh, they are rolling in millions, but Senator McConnell is determined to keep secret the source of these funds, so he wants to prohibit the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring corporations to simply state publicly that they are making these contributions. We do. If corporations are persons--individual persons, like myself have to make a disclosure of contributions that are made. Why should corporations have the benefit of being treated as a person to make contributions but not the responsibility facing persons to disclose this publicly? Senator McConnell wants to keep that secret, and that is why he included it in this legislation and made it as controversial as it is.
A simple word to the leader on the Republican side and to the wise who want to leave and go home and campaign: There is a way out of here.
Treat the people in Flint, MI, with the same respect we are treating the victims in Louisiana. Provide the resources for opioid funding, which we desperately need. Leave out this special interest provision protecting corporations that want to make political contributions but want to keep it secret so nobody knows what they are doing. Make sure that we finally--finally--7 months later, adequately fund the Zika crisis so we can deal with this and develop a vaccine to protect all of America.
Mr. President, to reiterate, after weeks of bipartisan negotiations and significant progress made in settling our differences on a bill to keep the government open through December 9, Republican leadership has given up on negotiations and instead filed a bill that completely ignores the ongoing emergency in Flint, MI. For over a year, the good people of Flint have waited for Congress to do our job and address the public health emergency that has poisoned 9,000 children and left 100,000 residents without access to clean and safe water. But once again, they are being told to wait. They are being told that the emergency their community is facing is somehow less important than emergencies other communities around the country are facing.
Republicans continue to argue that the ongoing crisis in Flint and other cities is better addressed through the Water Resources Development bill or WRDA. But while the Senate WRDA bill, which we passed earlier this month, includes vital funding for Flint, the House has made no commitment to help Flint in their bill. We cannot afford to wait any longer. The people of Flint have waited far too long already.
We need to address the emergency in Flint now--in this bill--just as we are addressing the emergency in Louisiana.
It is unbelievable that Congress continues to hold up federal funds to help aid these Americans in their time of need. Almost 100,000 people are currently living without reliable access to clean water in their homes and 9,000 children are suffering from lead poisoning. Just like those suffering from flooding and tornados, these families did nothing to deserve this. And just as the federal government always helps when Americans are hit by disasters, it should do so now.
There were no complaints last May when the Federal government declared an emergency and reached out to residents of Texas to help them rebuild their lives after a tornado hit. So I see no reason why Senators should hesitate to provide funding to Flint, Michigan, to help deal with this public health emergency. The crisis in Flint is a tragedy that demands Senate action.
Instead of turning on the tap to make breakfast or take a shower, like all of us did this morning, these residents start their day by waiting in long lines for bottled water to feed and bathe their children, take showers, and stay healthy. And for those elderly or disabled residents that cannot make it to the pick-up location, they are left with the option of continuing to use water that they know is poisoning their bodies with lead and causing numerous health issues.
The lead contamination levels in the City mean that an entire generation of children are in danger of suffering from irreversible brain damage, lower IQ scores, developmental delays, and behavior issues for the rest of their lives.
This truly is a tragedy that requires federal support.
And what is frightening, is that Flint is not the only city battling with lead issues, nor is it an isolated incident. Elevated lead contamination levels have been reported in cities nationwide--including in Ohio, South Carolina, New Jersey, Mississippi, and Washington, DC.
In my own home state of Illinois, Chicagoans have been battling with lead contamination in their homes for years.
Recent articles in the Chicago Tribune have highlighted this struggle. In 2012, an EPA study found high levels of lead in the drinking water of several Chicago homes--despite the City's use of anticorrosive chemicals to treat the water. And since then, at least 179 young children in federally-subsidized homes in Chicago have suffered lead poisoning stemming from exposure to lead-based paint.
These issues have led to Illinois having some of the country's highest rates of children with elevated blood lead blood levels, which, unfortunately, have hit low-income and minority communities the hardest.
Thankfully, however, lead levels in Illinois and across the nation have not risen to the severity of those in Flint.
But the widespread nature of these issues does show that we need to get serious about investing in infrastructure programs that address the housing, environmental, and public health aspects of preventing lead contamination in American homes. That is why I was proud to join Senators from both sides of the aisle in supporting a bipartisan deal to address the ongoing lead crisis in Flint and other communities across the country and ensure all Americans have access to safe drinking water.
The Senate's bipartisan WRDA bill provides $220 million in direct emergency assistance to Flint and other communities facing similar drinking water emergencies. It provides $1.4 billion over five years to help small and disadvantaged communities comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The bill modernizes our State Revolving Loan Fund program and provides $300 million in grants for communities to replace lead service lines. And because we are also seeing high levels of lead in our schools' water, the bill authorizes $100 million for additional lead testing in schools.
This bill also addresses many of the issues that I raised in the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act that I introduced with Senator Menendez and the CLEAR Act that I introduced with Senator Cardin, two bills that would ensure our children are protected from the dangerous effects of lead in our water and our housing.
While we still haven't figured out our differences over aid for communities affected by lead contamination, Democrats and Republicans have finally agreed to address the Zika public health emergency in this bill.
In February, the President requested $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus. In May, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill to provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding to combat this virus, but then partisan politics took over. Republicans insisted on attaching a variety of controversial policy riders to the Zika bill, from attempting to overturn provisions of the Clean Water Act to trying to block money from going to Planned Parenthood health centers.
Thankfully, 7 months after the President first made his request, common-sense is prevailing and Republicans have finally dropped their outrageous demands to load this bill up with contentious and extraneous items. I wish it had happened sooner. The bill before us today includes $1.1 billion in funding to help States and our Federal health agencies properly respond to the ongoing Zika epidemic. This money will be used for vaccine development, mosquito control, and the delivery of needed health care.
What the bill before us today does NOT include are ill-conceived partisan poison pills. As of last week, there were more than 23,000 reported cases of Zika in the United States and its territories, including more than 2,000 pregnant women. We are 7 months overdue in passing this emergency funding. It is my hope that pregnant women and children won't have to wait much longer.
While this bill is missing vital funding for Flint, Leader McConnell had no problem including controversial language that limits the Security and Exchange Commission's ability to require disclosure of corporate political spending.
In 2010, the Supreme Court issued a far-reaching decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. On a divided 5-4 vote, the Court struck down years of precedent and held that the First Amendment permitted corporations to spend freely from their treasuries to influence elections. As a result of Citizens United and the series of decisions that followed in its wake, special interests and wealthy, well-connected campaign donors have so far poured more than $2 billion dollars of outside spending into recent Federal elections, including 2016 races.
In the years since Citizens United, several of my colleagues and I have called for the SEC to initiate a rulemaking requiring public companies to disclose their political spending to shareholders. More than 1.2 million securities experts, institutional and individual investors, and members of the public have asked the SEC for a disclosure rule.
Such a rulemaking would bring much needed transparency to the U.S. political process. Shareholders deserve to know when outside spending in political campaigns comes from the coffers of a company they have invested in.
Unfortunately, last year, this provision limiting the SEC's rulemaking authority was slipped into the omnibus appropriations bill, which we had to pass in order to fund the government for the 2016 fiscal year. We should not allow this rider to continue to strangle the SEC's authority.
Despite weeks of bipartisan progress on a deal to fund the government, the Republicans have decided to move forward on a bill that continues to ignore the ongoing crisis in Flint and other cities like Chicago.
Congress and the Federal government's primary responsibility is to protect the American people. And just as the Federal government always helps when Americans are hit by disasters, it should do so now.
Like the communities in Louisiana suffering from devastating flooding, the people of Flint deserve our help in responding to this public health emergency. A deal to provide funding for Flint has already passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. We need to address the emergency in Flint NOW, in this bill. The people of Flint have waited long enough.
I yield the floor.
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