Dick Durbin: “last week, the Senate approved a compromise deal negotiated by Senators Blunt, Murray, and others to provide $1.1…”

“last week, the Senate approved a compromise deal negotiated by Senators Blunt, Murray, and others to provide $1.1 billion in emergency supplemental Zika funding. The White House, Dr. Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, and Dr. Collins of the National Institute of Health, NIH, told us they needed $1.9 billion to fight this public health crisis, but the Republican caucus disagreed with these infectious disease experts. I am not sure why Republicans do not believe the world's best scientists and health officials when they articulate a clear, comprehensive plan to stop Zika. Perhaps they do not appreciate the severity of this public health threat? When we were faced with cases of Ebola within the United States, we reacted swiftly and decisively. We funded 87 percent, $5.4 billion, of the administration's request in a total of just 38 days. Well, now the same number of people in the U.S. and U.S. territories have died from Ebola, as have from Zika--one. Yet more than 91 days past the date of the formal Zika request, we are debating between just 33 percent, as the House approved, and 58 percent of this request? I fear my Republican colleagues are underestimating the threat from the Zika virus on our Nation's pregnant women. We know that Zika causes microcephaly, a devastating and tragic birth defect that causes babies to be born with serious neurological complications. And it seems that every day we are learning something worse.…”