DeLauro Rises in Support of Zika Amendment, Calls on Republicans to Act

WASHINGTON, DC (May 24, 2016) — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today supported an amendment to the FY 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill. The amendment was offered by Congresswoman Nita Lowey (NY-17) and would provide the President’s full $1.9 billion request to respond to the Zika virus. DeLauro noted the urgent need to provide funding as summer approaches and more women and families are at risk of contracting the virus.

Click here to watch the full remarks.

Here are the remarks, as delivered:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank my colleagues.

Just to follow up on a comment that my colleague Mr. Israel made. I’ve heard many times, in this body and in this committee, that when we appropriate money for defense spending or for wars, my Republican colleagues will often say, ‘Listen to the generals, listen to the generals. They are the ones who know best. They can tell us what our needs are. They can tell us the number of troops we need. They can give us the dollar amount of money that we need to be able to fight back, whatever the threat is.’

Well, in fact, we are in the midst of a war and that is against Zika. And we should be listening to the generals and to the experts who are in the field. Where are the generals and the experts in the field? They are at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they are at the National Institutes of Health; they are in the science community. And we choose to ignore what they are saying about how we deal with and how we combat the Zika virus. We need to give them the resources that they need.

They say, and they talk about the need for $1.9 billion—let us do the right thing as we would do if were dealing with defense spending or spending for a war. And they have accounted for where their money is going. They have been specific about the direction of those dollars. And the CDC has been specific about the direction of those dollars.

If they do not get additional funding, they will not have multi-year studies of infant health outcomes, no health studies in asymptomatic pregnant women, limited data to refine health recommendations to the U.S. population to minimize health effects from the Zika virus.

In a matter of weeks, in a matter of weeks, the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus are going to be here on mainland U.S.A. Along the coastal states it can spread to 30 states. That means families are at risk, women are at risk. If you’re going to a Little League game with your kids, if you’re going out on your patio—and the concern and fear that you can get bit by a mosquito—if a woman is of child-bearing age, or pregnant. It is outrageous that we cannot find the wherewithal to be able to look at the need that is here.

Already, we are looking at pregnant women facing unacceptably long delays in learning that result. Just one more point I would make you. It’s $10 million to care for a child with birth defects or microcephaly, $10 million. If we can’t get you to understand the dollar amount, think about what the child’s life is about—delays in learning, speaking, walking, and eating.

It is time for us to appropriate $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus.

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