DeLauro Offers Zika Amendment During Agriculture Appropriations Hearing

WASHINGTON, DC (April 19, 2016) — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today offered an amendment to the FY2017 Agriculture Appropriations bill that would fund the Administration’s $1.9 billion emergency supplemental funding request to respond the Zika virus. DeLauro noted the critical need to address the virus and the conflicting information that women are receiving regarding whether or not to become pregnant.

Click here to watch the full remarks.

Here are the remarks, as delivered:

Thank you, Mister Chairman. My amendment includes $1.9 billion in emergency funding, including $1.5 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to respond to the threat posed by the Zika virus. The Zika virus is a critical health emergency that we must address immediately.

My amendment would provide $743 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support Zika virus readiness and response capacity in states with mosquito populations that are known to transmit Zika virus, and enhance mosquito control programs to reduce the opportunities for Zika transmission. It would also allocate $465 million for research, rapid advanced development and commercialization of new vaccines, and diagnostic tests for Zika virus.

The Administration requested an emergency appropriation of $1.9 billion to face the Zika threat—including $1.5 billion for HHS. The Administration is more confident about its ability to move forward on vaccine and diagnostic candidates, which is why they are proposing to shift money in their request from the contingency fund to the NIH and to BARDA.

This Congress cannot bury its head in the sand and hope that Zika goes away because it will not. This Committee must play a critical role in attacking the virus. We can invest in stopping it, or we can let people in our country become infected and suffer. And while we dawdle, babies may die.

In the last two days, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said “We have to act now. If the regular appropriations process takes too long, I don’t want to have to wait to develop a vaccine.” Last month, he said: “Everything we see is bad. Every week, every month it tends to surprise us. There was no reason to think that it would be this bad.”

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said last Thursday, “There is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly…never before in history has there been a situation where a mosquito bite can result in a devastating malformation.” There is no ambiguity. Zika causes debilitating brain damage.

Also, last Thursday, some physicians are advising women—and the title of the article was “Health Officials Split Over Advice on Pregnancy in Zika Areas”—some physicians are advising women to not get pregnant, arguing that avoiding conception is the only sure way to avoid the birth of deformed babies. Is this the message we want to send to American women? Don’t get pregnant.

In the Gulf Coast states of the U.S.—Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—where large concentrations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary carrier of the Zika virus are found—the birth rate is high. There were 783,000 births in 2014—as many babies will be born this year. Along the Gulf Coast, temperatures are already reaching the 80s in the afternoon. By May and June, these areas will begin to see these mosquitoes in large numbers.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have talked about a lack of information on the Administration’s response to Zika. We have the information. I might add it includes legislative language, justifications, explanations for requests, tables, and briefings, so the Administration has provided copious amounts of information.

I also might also add that we had less information when we chose to go to war in Iraq—speaking of slush funds. And we never found one weapon of mass destruction. And the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction said the following, “At least $8 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds were wasted because of contractor’s abuses and mismanagement.”

Last week, Ranking Member Lowey, Representative Wasserman Schultz, and I requested that the Appropriations Committee hold a special meeting to hear from the Administration on its $1.9 billion Zika virus supplemental request before our next Congressional district work period, so that the Administration can answer any questions that the Committee may have.

Due to the majority’s refusal to consider the emergency request, the Administration has been forced to redirect $510 million from Ebola to the immediate Zika response. Let me be clear: these funds are being directed away from other critical and threatening global health risks and are being repurposed only as a last resort – and not because it is the right thing to do from a policy perspective. Ebola is not over.

Yesterday I met with representatives from Liberia.

Mister Chairman, with all due respect there was an earlier discussion in this committee that went on at great length. I have about a minute left. I will conclude and then I’m happy to answer any questions, so I just ask unanimous consent if I can just deal with this last minute of my comments. As I say, there was a very lengthy debate.

(Chairman: Without objection, one minute.)

Thank you very much, Mister Chairman.

I met representatives from Uganda and Liberia, other African countries. And they quite frankly, are frightened that we will walk away from our commitment with regard to Ebola.

Congress needs to act immediately. If we do not response quickly to Zika, we will put American women in the predicament of choosing whether or not they should get pregnant—or if they already are pregnant, forcing them to wonder whether or not their baby is okay. Look at the article with the headline that says, “Is My Baby Okay?”

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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