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Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), the second-highest ranking House Democrat on the House Rules Committee, led today’s debate for House Democrats on the House GOP bill to provide funding for the U.S. response to the Zika virus.

Congressman McGovern criticized House Republicans for waiting months to bring a bill to the floor and called today’s bill woefully inadequate for only providing a third of the $1.9 billion in Zika funding requested by President Obama. Click here for video of today’s speech.

Excerpts of Congressman McGovern’s Speech:

“With nearly 1,400 Americans -- including more than 275 pregnant women -- currently infected with the virus, and well over a million cases expected before the end of the year, it is absolutely shameful that this House has failed to act on legislation to adequately fund a response to this potentially devastating crisis.

“Zika is not coming to the United States. It’s here! As summer arrives, along with mosquito season, the mosquito that carries the Zika virus will be active and knocking on the doors of our southern states and territories. This is an emergency, and it should be treated as such.

“Instead of working with Democrats to address this public health emergency in a serious bipartisan way that puts the health and safety of the American people first, the Republican leadership has once again brought to the floor partisan legislation that will not adequately meet the needs of the CDC, NIH, USAID and other governmental agencies that are on the front lines, responding to this crisis.

“Yes, we all want to be fiscally responsible, but let me tell you this, if all you’re worried about is the bottom line, and that is the cost, by not adequately funding what is needed to combat this crisis, the costs that will result if this crisis gets out of control, will be prohibitive. You ain’t seen nothing yet. So we can nickel and dime this if we want, but we do so at our own peril.

“We oughta be concerned primarily with the safety and well-being of the American people. But if that’s not enough to prompt my friends on the other side of the aisle to support the president’s request, I would suggest that cost of not supporting this request and adequately funding the response will be a cost like you’ve never seen before. I urge my colleagues to […] bring up strong bipartisan legislation that will fully fund the administration's request. This is a public health emergency and we must act now.”  

Click here for video of today’s speech.

Full Text of Congressman McGovern’s Speech:

As Prepared For Delivery

“Let me start by saying how disappointed I am by the inadequate and long overdue response by this Republican majority to the Zika crisis.

“With nearly 1,400 Americans -- including more than 275 pregnant women -- currently infected with the virus, and well over a million cases expected before the end of the year, it is absolutely shameful that this House has failed to act on legislation to adequately fund a response to this potentially devastating crisis.

“Zika is not coming to the United States. It’s here! As summer arrives, along with mosquito season, the mosquito that carries the Zika virus will be active and knocking on the doors of our southern states and territories. This is an emergency, and it should be treated as such.

“But my friends on the other side of the aisle have spent months delaying action and making excuses about why we don't need to provide the full funding that our nation's public health experts say we need.

“I appreciate the fact that my friends on the other side of the aisle consider themselves public health experts, but there are people who are trained to be public health experts who tell us that what we’re doing here today is underfunding an inadequate response to this crisis. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this, as my friends in the majority have made it a habit of ignoring the advice of scientists and experts in favor of appeasing a small group of House Republicans on the extreme right.

“In February, President Obama requested $1.9 billion to address the public health threat posed by the Zika virus. Instead of taking the swift action needed to confront this crisis, the House delayed and delayed and delayed as the Zika crisis continued to spread. We should have sent a bill to President Obama's desk months ago.

“But instead, this leadership allowed months to go by without any action on the issue, until last week when they brought to the floor a completely inadequate $622 million package that provides only one-third of the funds requested by the administration.

“House Democrats, under the leadership of Leader Pelosi and Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Lowey, have tried to bring to the floor meaningful emergency funding to address Zika, only to be blocked by House Republicans five times. Five times!

“While the administration has taken steps to help keep Americans safe from the Zika virus, significant additional appropriations are needed.  In a letter to Speaker Ryan, OMB Director Shaun Donovan and National Security Advisor Susan Rice said that without emergency supplemental funding, mosquito control and surveillance may need to be suspended. State and local governments that manage mosquito control may not be able to hire personnel for mosquito mitigation efforts. And vaccine developments -- which require multi-year funding commitments -- may be jeopardized.

“To make matters worse, House Republicans sent to the floor last week -- and again this week -- a bill to undermine the Clean Water Act and protections for our waterways under the guise of helping to contain the Zika virus. But the truth of the matter is, the legislation is nothing more than a carve-out for pesticide special interests and would have absolutely no effect on spraying pesticides to combat the spread of the Zika virus.  

“It's a bill my friends have brought to the floor in the past, but they just couldn't help themselves in using this crisis as an excuse to further undermine environmental protections.

“So instead of working with Democrats to address this public health emergency in a serious bipartisan way that puts the health and safety of the American people first, the Republican leadership has once again brought to the floor partisan legislation that will not adequately meet the needs of the CDC, NIH, USAID and other governmental agencies that are on the front lines, responding to this crisis.

“Let me close by saying I have great respect for the gentleman from Oklahoma and when he says that he intends to support every effort to make sure that adequate funding is available, if I thought this whole decision was up to him alone, I don’t think I would be as nervous as I am at this particular point. But his party, that is in control, has shut this government down. We have seen them lurch from one crisis to another crisis and underfund one priority after another. Quite frankly, I don’t trust the people who are running this House to do the right thing, to get a majority of their majority to go along with providing the appropriate funding.

“Yes, we all want to be fiscally responsible, but let me tell you this, if all you’re worried about is the bottom line, and that is the cost, by not adequately funding what is needed to combat this crisis, the costs that will result if this crisis gets out of control, will be prohibitive. You ain’t seen nothing yet. So we can nickel and dime this if we want, but we do so at our own peril.

“We oughta be concerned primarily with the safety and well-being of the American people. But if that’s not enough to prompt my friends on the other side of the aisle to support the president’s request, I would suggest that cost of not supporting this request and adequately funding the response will be a cost like you’ve never seen before. I urge my colleagues to defeat this Rule, and to bring up strong bipartisan legislation that will fully fund the administration's request.  This is a public health emergency and we must act now.”  

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