John Culberson: “The Zika virus does pose a genuine emergency situation and, as in any emergency, requires a calm head, clear thinking…”

“The Zika virus does pose a genuine emergency situation and, as in any emergency, requires a calm head, clear thinking, and rational approach to dealing with the problem, absent of emotion. You have got to be careful and thoughtful about these things. As with any emergency situation, you have got to trust the experts, and the experts in the field have told us that the Ebola virus is no longer as serious a threat as it was. That emergency has passed. We now need to focus on the Zika virus, which we are beginning to see cases in the United States. So, in a thoughtful, careful, rational way, the Republican majority has made certain that the money, our constituents' hard-earned tax dollars, is wisely and prudently spent. {time} 2000 When we first recognized it, Chairman Rogers, Chairman Cole, and Chairman Granger made sure there was $5 billion set aside in the current year to fight Ebola and other infectious diseases. Nearly $2 billion is still in that account for other infectious diseases. And to deal with this Zika crisis, we have in this legislation tonight--which I urge my colleagues to support--added another $622 million that is completely offset. We have made savings and cuts in other areas of the government to make sure that our constituents' hard- earned taxpayers dollars are wisely spent. We are not increasing spending.…”