On the recordJune 28, 2016
as I said this morning, and I will repeat it, I don't know what universe my friend is living in. What does he think--that we are all stupid, that the American people are dumb? They are not. They understand what is going on here. We have been trying for months--months. The President asked more than 4 months ago that we would get money to fight Zika. He had already had to take $500 million from Ebola because the Republicans had done nothing. He said more than 4 months ago: We need money. The CDC needs money. The NIH needs money. We have a crisis on our hands. So we have been on top of this. We have worked hard. Republicans have objected five times to moving legislation that is meaningful. On April 28, the senior Senator from Texas objected to my request. On May 18, he objected to my unanimous consent request again and to Senator Murray's request--all in the same day. On May 24, he objected to Senator Murray's request again for funding Zika. On May 24--the same day-- Senator Enzi objected to Senator Nelson's unanimous consent request. He said that we need to reflect. Come on. Listen to this. If Republicans were sitting around, as I assume they were in the House, as we were all watching the takeover of the House floor by House Democrats--there wasn't anything going on on the House floor, so I assume--I assume--they were sitting around thinking: What can we do to fake funding for Zika? What can we do?…
