Political Quotes

“Reserving the right to object, there is bipartisan support for doing what we need to do to address the Zika virus, which, as the Senator from Florida correctly pointed out, has dramatically affected the territory of Puerto Rico. Fortunately, according to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, there is no single case in the continental United States of a mosquito-borne infection in someone in the continental United States. But that is not to say this is not a serious matter. In fact, it is. That is why Republicans were glad to see the administration use the unexpended funds for the Ebola crisis--some $500 million--as a downpayment on what is going to be necessary to deal with this. But the fact is, our friends across the aisle have requested a $1.9 billion blank check, and they haven't told us what the plan is for the use of the funds. In the bill filed by Senator Nelson, he said those funds will be spent until they are gone. And, of course, it is emergency spending, which is deficit spending and adds to the debt. But the legislation completely lacks any sort of accountability that would only come through a regular appropriations process where we consider this in a deliberate sort of way. So I have a number of questions for the Senator that I would ask. I would note that I have traveled to the Galveston National Laboratory, which has done some world-class research in this area and also on the Ebola virus and other infectious diseases.…”