Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak with regard to providing funding for the emerging Zika crisis that the Senate will be considering on the floor today. We in this body and the entire Congress over the past several years have provided a lot of additional health-related supplemental funding. In fact, over the past 13 years, roughly $19 billion has been directed toward health-related emergency supplemental funding. This, of course, does not include the hundreds of billions of dollars in other supplemental spending that has circumvented the budgetary oversight process. With a national debt of $19 trillion, we have to make sure we budget for these types of emergencies. When we have appropriated on a supplemental basis $19 billion over the past 13 years--supplemental health funding--then we know we need to budget for this type of crisis and not simply go the supplemental route and go out from under our budgetary caps. I will support cloture today on the measure that includes an offset. We have to be more fiscally responsible as we deal with these crises. This is a crisis we need to deal with, but we ought to at least attempt to offset that funding. I believe taxpayers deserve nothing less than that. With that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.”