Grace Napolitano: “I include in the Record several news editorials from coast to coast, including one from The New York Times that refers…”

“I include in the Record several news editorials from coast to coast, including one from The New York Times that refers to this legislation as a ``pretext to weaken environmental regulations'' and ``a ruse to benefit pesticide manufacturers and farmers who find the regulation burdensome.'' [From the New York Times, May 19, 2016] Stealing From Ebola to Fight Zika (By the Editorial Board) Nobody should be surprised when the present House of Representatives, dominated by penurious reactionaries, produces a stingy response to a danger that calls for compassionate largess. But for sheer fecklessness it's hard to top the House's response this week to the Zika virus. The salient feature is that in providing money to fight one health menace, it steals from other funds meant to fight an even more dangerous threat--the Ebola virus. In February, President Obama asked Congress for $1.9 billion to help fight Zika, a virus that can cause severe birth defects and has been linked to neurological disorders in adults. Transmittable by mosquitoes and through sex, Zika broke out last year in Brazil and has since spread to the United States and other countries. Experts fear there could eventually be hundreds of thousands of infections in Puerto Rico, where nearly half the population lives below the poverty line, with possibly hundreds of babies affected. States in the American South with large mosquito populations are also at particular risk.…”