Donald M. Payne: “Let me first thank the gentlewoman from Ohio for this opportunity to speak during this Special Order hour and to also…”

“Let me first thank the gentlewoman from Ohio for this opportunity to speak during this Special Order hour and to also thank my other classmate, the Honorable Hakeem Jeffries from New York, for this opportunity to speak at this time on unfinished business. Mr. Speaker, it has been my great honor to represent the 10th Congressional District of the State of New Jersey for the past two Congresses, and I have seen a great deal of angst. I have seen some accomplishment, but not as much as the American people are due. We come here week after week. We get here on Monday nights, like tonight. We come in and meet with our staffs, and then we are told of the proposed votes that we have that evening. On most nights, it is two. Now, I understand it is a night of travel and of making sure all Members have the opportunity to get here; but what does it say about Tuesday when there could possibly be two or about Wednesday morning when there will only be two votes? There is unfinished business, Mr. Speaker, in the House of Representatives. There are so many issues that we could discuss, and I think they are all being hit by my colleagues. Zika is a frightening prospect for this Nation in its moving forward. Yet and still we are unable to get the level of funding that the President has asked for to try to understand and stop this disease, to do the research needed to figure out what is going on or how to prevent it. We just go home for recess.…”