Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
Floor Speech
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Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to discuss, first of all, the successful location of the El Faro voyage data recorder by the NTSB. As you all recall, that was the ship that had sailed from Jacksonville and was lost at sea and everyone perished. Today, the NTSB found the data recorder.
The U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, and other search partners were also involved. That gives me hope that we will soon have more answers about this terrible disaster and how to prevent a similar one from happening again. So I want to thank the men and women of the investigative team who worked together to find this important piece of the El Faro puzzle.
Today we are also reminded of those who were lost on the El Faro and the loved ones they left behind. They remain in our thoughts and prayers. Zika Virus
Madam President, on a different topic, I wanted to come to the floor today and talk again about the Zika virus. Once again there was an announcement that there had been additional cases identified in Florida.
Just to recap where we stand now, Zika has now spread to over 43 countries. There are 500 cases in U.S. territories, most of them on the Island of Puerto Rico. In my home State of Florida, there are now 93 cases--the most of any State--and the peak mosquito season is directly ahead.
A lot has happened regarding Zika. We have learned more and more about this disease. For example, we are now learning the virus has a direct link to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a very debilitating, often fatal, illness, and it is striking people affected with it. We are learning through recent science that it is not just the first trimester of pregnancy but also potentially in the second trimester that unborn children can be impacted by this, and the impacts are devastating.
We are learning that of the two species of mosquitoes that spread the disease, one of them has developed an immunity, a resistance to the most commonly used pesticide to remove them. So there is real concern as we head into the summer months and mosquitoes begin to appear that soon we will wake up to the news that there has now been a mosquito- borne transmission within the continental United States.
Here is the bottom line: We don't know everything about this disease. We already know it is bad, but we don't know how bad it is. Every day we find out more things. We know during these summer months it will be increasingly warm in many parts of the country where the two mosquito species that spread the virus can be found--in 30 out of 50 States. We know those mosquitoes tend to grow even faster during warm seasons and when there is a lot of water on the ground. And we know one of the countries most impacted by it--Brazil--will soon host the Summer Olympic Games, which means there is going to be a tremendous amount of travel to and from Brazil, and, in fact, there already is. We know the disease is not just spread through mosquitoes, but it is also sexually transmitted.
The result of all this is that there is a real concern about what direction we are headed. The President has asked for $1.9 billion in funding, and I am generally supportive of that request. I believe we need to deal with these issues on the front end as quickly as possible. We don't want to wake up one morning to the realization that we are now in the middle of summer, this has become an epidemic or a catastrophe, and we didn't do anything on the front end. Everyone here will have to explain what their position was at the time.
I also think you can be for Zika funding--you can even be for Zika funding at $1.9 billion--and you can also ask questions about how this money is going to be spent and, if possible, how we are going to pay for it because we are facing a debt situation in this country. I believe we can find $1.9 billion to pay for it. I have suggested some of my own.
What we don't want to do is to play political games with this. I think it is important. On the one side, you can't just say: Look, I am against anything they are asking for that comes up unless you prove otherwise. I think it is important that we now admit this is a serious issue that needs to be confronted. But it is also not being an obstructionist to ask: How is the money going to be spent? What programs will be funded? Where is the prioritization going to be? I think it is not too much to ask to have a level of detail about that $1.9 billion.
What I am concerned about is some of the reports in the news that there are games being played with this. We have heard the news that the administration has redirected $44 million in emergency preparedness grants promised to State and local governments this summer. Oftentimes in politics this is a very typical maneuver. What you do is, you cut money from an organization somewhere and you blame it on congressional inaction--or in the States, on legislative inaction. And they say the reason you are losing this money is that someone is not doing what we want, so you find the most painful, alarming cuts and use them as a leverage point to get pressure built on Congress. So I want to make sure that this is not part of some game. We shouldn't be playing games with this. I think it is also important to understand why, in addition to the $1.9 billion, they are also saying on top of that we also have to repay the $510 million in Ebola funds since the Ebola situation is now under control.
These are all legitimate issues that need to be confronted. But in the end, we have to do something about this. I know the Senate and the Congress were not meant to move at warp speed, to say the least. It is a place in which action takes time, and I understand that. But there are things we don't have time for. This issue has to be dealt with on the front end. Summer is here already. If you have been in South Florida, as I have on weekends, and back in my home State, as I will be again this Friday and into the weekend, it is already hot. That heat, combined with a wet season, means mosquitoes.
This is mosquito season. We have a disease that is already creating this catastrophic impact in countries neighboring us to the south. We know it is spread by mosquitoes. Mosquito season is rapidly approaching, and we have to get ahead of this. None of us wants to be in a position in June, July, and August where this thing breaks out and we start seeing cases in the continental United States, as we are already seeing in Puerto Rico and in Brazil, and we have no answer for why we did nothing during these months we were here.
I don't know what all the impediments are. I know there are conversations going on at the committee level, but I hope we can bridge this rather quickly. There are so many other issues we can argue about. There are so many other issues we can have debates about in the partisan season. But I don't think a disease of this magnitude, with this level of risk, is one we should be playing games with.
My hope is that cooler heads will prevail and that over the next few days we will find it within ourselves to find out how to appropriate the necessary money so we can begin to deal with this, at least on the front end. Maybe there is a chunk of money on the front end so we can begin to address it and then we can come back later and fund the rest of it. I think it is incumbent upon the administration and others to say ``This is what the money is going to be spent on'' so we can judge whether the money and the funds are actually going to things that work. But this needs to happen. This problem can't wait, and it shouldn't be a partisan fight.
Combating Zika is an appropriate use of public dollars. It is an appropriate use of public dollars. I am for limited government. I am for a very limited Federal Government. But one of the things the Federal Government is tasked with is keeping our people and country safe, particularly from external threats. Traditionally, what that means is an invading army or some military threat from abroad or whatever. In this case, this is a threat emerging from abroad, but it is coming toward the United States. There is nothing that prevents the United States from becoming like some of these other countries that have been impacted by this--nothing. Our people are not genetically immune to Zika. It is a matter of time. It is not a question of if, it is a question of when there will be a mosquito-borne transmission of the Zika disease here in the United States. And when that happens, if the posture of the Congress has been that we did nothing--nothing has happened on this; we are still debating over $200 million or $50 million--people will not be satisfied with that answer.
So my hope is that this is dealt with according to the level of urgency it deserves. As I said, in my home State of Florida we already have 93 cases, with 2 new ones over the weekend. Those numbers are only going to grow. It is just a matter of time before there is a mosquito- borne transmission somewhere in the United States--the continental United States, because, as I said, this has already occurred in Puerto Rico--and I hope we get ahead of it before it is too late.
As I speak to the appropriators and those involved in this, my hope is that we can find our way forward on this rather quickly. There are so many other issues to argue about; this should not be one of them. The money needs to be spent the right way, but it needs to be spent and it needs to be appropriated, and we should endeavor to pay for as much of it, if not all of it, as we can. It needs to get quickly to the target. We need to move from this process and on to those programs so we can get ahead of it in May and June, before we get into the summer, before we get into mosquito season, and before we have an outbreak in the United States. If not, we then will have to answer to the people as to why nothing happened when we knew the risk was growing and the threat was emerging.
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Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I agree that the U.S.-Mexico relationship is one of our most important bilateral relationships. We do need an ambassador in Mexico City who has a track record of effectively advancing U.S. interests. I do, however, have serious questions about the policies that Assistant Secretary Jacobson has pursued during her tenure in the Western Hemisphere Bureau.
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