On the recordMay 18, 2016
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, this is the face of Zika: an innocent child harmed with the disease--a disease that we could prevent. Now, this disease is harming our fellow American citizens in Puerto Rico and on the eastern side of the mainland. Already, because of Washington's decades of neglect, Puerto Rico's health care system is broken. Last year, 500 doctors packed up and left the island, never to return, and physicians are leaving at the rate of one a day. While Puerto Rico's health infrastructure is vulnerable, we are seeing this terrible disease take hold. More than 570 cases of infection have already been reported in Puerto Rico, including almost 50 pregnant women, and two deaths. How dare anyone in this Chamber say that this is political. It is not political when we have people that are dying in Puerto Rico. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
