Political Quotes

“on a separate topic, I rise today to discuss the spread of the Zika virus. As many of my colleagues know, I have been calling for funding to confront this crisis to be included in the continuing resolution Congress is hopefully going to pass in the coming weeks. First, in light of tonight's vote, I want to take a step back and look at how we have gotten to this point. I want us to think about how long we have known about this crisis. I want us to think about how many warning signs had to be ignored for us to still be having this debate. And I want all the American people who are concerned about and impacted by the virus to know the truth about our deliberations up to this point. The truth is that every Senator has known about the Zika virus since at least January. We all knew then that it was a threat. The World Health Organization warned in January that Zika would spread throughout most of the Americas by the end of this year. In February, as the number of travel-related cases in the United States grew, President Obama made an emergency spending request of $1.9 billion. I supported that request. The vast majority of Congress, for political reasons, did not. So the virus continued to spread. Since then, I have come to the floor of the Senate to urge my colleagues to take action on Zika on at least eight separate occasions.…”