On the recordMay 18, 2016
As an emergency medicine physician and a public health expert myself, I rise today to strongly oppose this inadequate Zika funding bill, and to urge my colleagues to fully fund our Nation's efforts to fight the Zika virus. In the emergency department, you don't just partially treat a patient. This is called negligence. You don't just take out a third of the cancer. You don't just give a third of the antibiotic dose for a severe pneumonia. Mr. Speaker, this bill is less than a third of what is needed to treat and protect women and their children from the Zika virus. It is less than a third of the prescription from the CDC and the experts needed to protect American families from Zika. Tomorrow I am voting ``no'' because I demand that we fully fund efforts to protect families, pregnant women and their children from Zika. Mr. Speaker, time is past due for you to do your job and address the Zika virus threat. We must completely fund efforts to protect American families from Zika. The American people deserve no less.
