Heidi Alexander: “I have been listening carefully to my friends on the other side of the aisle. Zika is truly an epidemic. It is…”

“I have been listening carefully to my friends on the other side of the aisle. Zika is truly an epidemic. It is terrifying young families all across the country who are worried their babies might be born with a birth defect. We are working hard to fund the creation of a vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that is likely to happen in the next year and a half. It takes a certain amount of creativity for the Democratic Senators to come to the floor and complain about the Senate not doing our job on Zika funding when three separate times the majority leader and Republicans have offered $1.1 billion in funding for Zika, and the Democratic Senators have refused to allow a vote. Let me say that again. Republican Senators had offered $1.1 billion in funding for Zika early in the summer, at a time when mosquitoes were flying, and the Democratic Senators have said: No, you can't even vote on it. This $1.1 billion, passed by the House, we are ready to vote on it here, and they have said no. Let's be straight up about this. We regard it as an urgent problem. Three times we have brought it up. We are ready to vote again if that is what we need to do. (The remarks of Mr. Alexander pertaining to the introduction of S. 3326 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'') The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.”