Political Quotes

“today I wish to talk about the urgent need to provide full funding for our response to the Zika virus. Nearly 5 months ago, on February 22, President Obama submitted a request to Congress for $1.9 billion in emergency supplemental funding to address the growing Zika epidemic. The request included $1.509 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS; $335 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID; $41 million for the Department of State; and support for several other Federal agencies. The administration's plan--which has the full weight of the scientific community behind it--represents a coordinated and well- funded, whole-of-government approach to combating the virus with a focus on prevention, treatment, and research. But instead of listening to the experts, Republicans choose instead to abide by a partisan agenda: offering a Zika conference report that underfunded critical Federal, State, and global response efforts by more than $800 million, and included poisonous policy riders and pay- fors that gratuitously attacked the Affordable Care Act, the safety of our Nation's drinking water, and women's reproductive rights. The Senate rejected the Zika conference report and rightfully so. The Republican leadership particularly in the House seem to be forgetting that the Zika virus is a mosquito-borne disease that has a real, devastating impacts on women and their babies.…”