On the recordMay 18, 2016
Let me thank the gentlewoman from New York and let me thank the chairman of the full committee, and let me thank the health scientists and doctors who have given us the real story of this case. Mr. Speaker, the first Ebola case was in Texas, the first case in the United States. And the CDC says that we have not extinguished or eliminated Ebola. The proposal today is not $1.2 billion. It is $600 million because you have taken $600 million or so out of the Ebola. And the doctors indicate that there are about 8 clusters or more of Ebola in Africa, where 85 CDC personnel are there. And if one case breaks out, we will need 1,000 personnel to deal with it. So what are we doing with the Zika funding if we are not providing the Centers for Disease Control what they need, $10 million to care for a child? They do not have the tools in order to do it. They cannot. People carrying the Zika virus do not know that they have the Zika virus and, as well, they have asked for $800 million, which you are not giving to them. This is the epicenter of the potential of the Zika virus in the United States. The idea that there is sitting water in places like the Gulf region, the idea that people travel, and the person who is traveling has a mosquito that bites them, and then they--that mosquito can transmit it. Here are the mosquito cesspools in Houston, Texas. So today I stand in opposition to the underlying proposal. We need the $1.9 billion that the administration has asked for.…
