David Price: “Congress is set to take the longest recess in memory with critical national priorities, even emergencies, unaddressed.…”

“Congress is set to take the longest recess in memory with critical national priorities, even emergencies, unaddressed. Three weeks ago on the floor of this House, we engaged in civil disobedience to protest the carnage of gun violence in our country and the disgrace of congressional inaction in the face of that. Republican leadership was prevented by their Freedom Caucus from putting even a token measure on the floor. But we will not rest until we are able to keep guns out of the hands of prospective terrorists and are able to have effective background checks. And now, incredibly, the Zika crisis is upon us. Months ago this should have been addressed. I convened researchers and government officials from my area, which is a research hub, to talk about the heroic efforts underway to find out how to prevent the spread of this virus, to understand how to develop a vaccine. Heroic work is going on. People are moving money around, dealing with the absence of a steady funding stream. We have let our people down. A public health crisis is coming. Congress has been grossly irresponsible in failing to provide steady and sure emergency funding for what is surely going to be a desperate public health emergency. ____________________”