Political Quotes

“I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the articulate gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, who has been very clear on the need to combat the Zika virus. Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, this bill is woefully inadequate. The Zika virus is a public health emergency. It is a crisis. Last week, 1,204 confirmed cases in the United States and its territories, over 100 of them pregnant women. One person has died. Temperatures are rising already and reaching high levels in the United States in the areas where these mosquitoes thrive, and we are told that this could spread to 30 States. The Olympics are less than 80 days away in Brazil. We are going to send our young men and women into harm's way. The window for us to act on this effort is closing, and the majority's Zika Response Appropriations Act is too little. It is too late. It only provides a third of the President's request. Without additional funding, the CDC will not be able to protect pregnant women by better understanding the link between Zika and adverse health effects. They will not be able to control and mitigate mosquito populations before the epidemic spreads further. They lose laboratory capacity, they lose the ability of surveillance as the outbreak is moving on. The most immediate needs of State and local public health departments are woefully underfunded by the House Republican bill.…”