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tv   US Senate  CSPAN  September 8, 2016 2:00pm-4:01pm EDT

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vote:
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vote:
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the presiding officer: any senator wish to vote or change their vote? if not then on the resolution the ayes are 92. the nays are zero. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate will resume legislative session. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk for the inhofe-boxer substitute amendment 4979. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the broke visions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do
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hereby move to bring to a close debate on senate amendment number 4979 signed by -- mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk for the underlying bill s. 2848. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on calendar number 523, s. 2848, a bill to provide for the conservation and development of water and related resources and so forth and for other purposes signed by 17 senators. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum calls with respect to the cloture motions be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the timing deadline for first degree "owe filing
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deadline for the first dee motions westbound 3:30 -- be 3:30 p.m. monday. the presiding officer: is there objection? objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask that the senate be in a period of morning businesses with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. a senator: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to chair some flashbacks or throwback thursdays if we want to call it that with regards to obamacare. a lot of speeches made about obamacare recently. specifically i want to look at the facts about obamacare as we all know them now more than six months later after -- or six years after it was signed into law, six long years. and remind the country what the president and my colleagues
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across the aisle promised all of us when they pushed this bill through the congress. i say "push" because it passed without one single republican vote, certainly not mine. first the reality. all summer long we have read the headlines about drastic premium increases being requested, insurers pulling out from different states and patients being caught in the middle. my state of kansas has not been immune. last year united health care announced it would leave our state. aetna was going to start in coverage and announced a massive excite from exchange markets from across the country, including kansas. we were at risk of having just one insurer in many parts of the state with no competition with regards to pricing. in june the state insurance department announced the proposed rate increase for next year. the good news a new insurer me
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medica was proposing to offer coverage in kansas. however, mr. president, there is bad news. the bad news premiums could be increased by nearly 50% next year for some individuals in our state and i know in many other states. last year the highest approved increase was 24.5%. next year's rates are still being finalized but they could be double that. let's throw it back. in 2013 president obama said about the law, the result is more choice, more competition, real health care security. today, however, we see less choice, less competition, and with insurers coming and going and rising premiums, i think kansas families would agree they are not secure in their health care coverage.
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i don't know any state that is. these are not just headlines on the internet and paper. folks back home are hurting. a nurse in kansas wrote to me about what she calls the devastating effect obamacare is having on her patient, her loved ones. she says i'm very concerned that continuing along these lines will further limit care and accelerate a decline in health care in our state as well as in our nation. mr. roberts: again, mr. president, let's throw back to what we were initially promised. way back on the campaign trail 2008, then candidate obama promised he would enact health care reform which would lower a typical family's premium by $2,500 a year. i don't foresee any way those savings could be realized if a kansas premium is going to be up over 40% on top of about 25%
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last year. looking back to 2013, congresswoman nancy pelosi said the implementation of this law was -- quote -- fabulous. fabulous? fabulous indeed. this was of course before open enrollment started and the failed launch of the healthcare.gov website which crashed. more issues of concern to me come from recent regulations that have been issued to implement this law. this law contains massive regulations. the law has 2,000 pages. the law has 2,000 pages, mr. president. we are now over 10,000 pages of regulations. the administration has proposed changing how they verify individuals as being eligible to receive taxpayer assistance for their premiums under the law. disprepare peanses between what a person claims discrepancies between what a person claims their income is and what they
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receive from trusted data sources must now be off by 25%. previously it was 10% in order for the administration to investigate a possible fraud. so i guess you could be fraudulent up to 24.9% now. the administration should not be lowering the standard by which is verifies eligibility for folks to receive taxpayer dollars. it is unacceptable for implementation of this law to further burden taxpayers by failing to protect against fraud and abuse. another recent regulation gets at one of my biggest fears of the law's passage. the ability of the government to ration care. there were four provisions of this law i believe would decrease individual choice, open the door to rationing, one of which was the centers for medicare and medicaid innovati innovation, cmmi. now in march, this outfit passed
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a proposal to test as the agency calls it how we pay for prescription drugs for our seniors under medicare part-b. patient groups, doctors and many of us in congress are gravely concerned about how this test could affect a patient's quality of and access to care. as the kansas medical society explained to me and i'm going to quote here, "this so-called demonstration will force kansas medicare beneficiaries with serious, sometimes life threatening conditions to participate, disrupt their treatment processes and impede their access to needed medication with no evidence, no evidence of improved health outcomes or financial gains for the medicare system." such a so-called test is now allowable because of the rations provisions of obamacare. the law is simply not working
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for the large majority of americans. insurers are pulling out, citing los angeless in covering the population of people that are seeking coverage on the exchanges. so americans are left with fewer options in selecting their health care coverage and most concerning they are paying more for it, a lot more. looking back to december of 2015 when this body sent legislation to the president's desk to repeal obamacare, the president's statement of administration policy stated simply the affordable health care act is working. yet last month the president wrote in the journal of american medical association that -- quote -- too many americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles or pay their monthly insurance bills. that's a true statement. mr. president, thank you for waking up to this nightmare.
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despite this new revelation that the affordable health care act is in fact the unaffordable health care act for most, the president and his party candidates to succeed him say the answer is greater government control, a public option. folks, that's government health care. that's what we're taking about. the failings of obamacare cannot be corrected with more government intervention, more restrictions and more regulations. we must triage the pain this law is inflicting on hard-working americans. we must repeal and we must replace this law. i know that many colleagues will join me in continuing to work to increase taxes to all and enact reform that will lower the cost of coverage and increase access to care for individuals. simply put, this law is failing.
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it is our job, our job to correct it and we will continue fighting to do so. i was just talking about this matter in the cloakroom just moments ago. several of our members who have been very active in this whole endeavor to try to come up not only to repeal but to replace this law, gave pause a little bit. you know, maybe this law was designed to fail. maybe this law is so bad in terms of falling apart, that people could not help but know that and then come in and say the only thing we can now move to is national health care. government-run health insurance. mr. president, if that's true, that's a six-year effort with a lot of pain and suffering and in terms of political deceit,
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probably rates right at the top. we have to repeal this law. we have to replace it. we have to get to work and we have to prevent further steps toward national health insurance. mr. president, i yield the floor.
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ms. stabenow: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you very much, mr. president. i rise today to speak about legislation that's currently on the floor, water resources development act, and i want to start by thanking a great legislative team of opposites who come together, and when they do, they get things done. and that's senator inhofe, as chair of the e.p.w. committee, and the ranking member, senator barbara boxer. i want to thank both of them for tireless efforts, including their staffs' for bringing forward something that is very important to my home state but important to communities all across the country. and i also want to thank our two loords for coming together and finding a way to -- leaders for coming together and finding a way to have a path affor forwart
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allows us to have bill. that's evident on this bill and very much appreciate everybody's efforts. this comes after the environment and public works committee approved the water resources development act by 19-1 in the committee. so clearly there's very strong bipartisan support, and it comes before the water infrastructure needs of the country are so great. every community, every state -- i know the distinguished presiding officer would be able to tell the same story in north dakota. i particularly want to focus on one part and then speak more broadly about the bill, but the part that deals with lead exposure and lead in water is very important to me. as colleagues know, it is very important to a community called flint, michigan, where 100,000
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people, through no fault of their own, were exposed to excessive levels of lead. and there are efforts going on now to try to fix that, and we're focused on long-term health and nutrition needs of children and families. but the water is still not fixed, mr. president. there's still -- people have said to me, well, gosh, that was really bad what happened before in flint. and i said, no, no ... it's not what happened before. it's still happening. it's still bottled water being delivered to homes and people have been waiting and waiting and waiting. so we are very grateful to be at this point, and there certainly is a great sense of urgency coming from families in flint as well as around michigan as well. more than half a million preschool students across the united states are actually exposed to elevated lead levels. so this is an issue in flint, but it's also an issue in schools, other parts of michigan
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where the drinking fountain in the school -- you know, you walk down the hall, the drinking fountain in the school was shut down because of high lead exposure. and that has happened in schools across the country. we have a particular concern because there are 9,000 children under the age of six -- not counting all the children in school -- who have h elevated ld levels, and it's really quite frightening because some of the homes in flint actually have registered levels higher than a toxic waste dump. so it is pretty scary. and incredibly important that we support their efforts to get the pipes replaced as quickly as possible. but the costs of lead exposure go far beyond the $50 billion a year americans have to pay in health care and in bottled water
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and all of the other health issues. having unsafe water costs us our well-being, the health of the communities, economic development. it costs us a sense of dignity. we think as americans that when -- one of the basic rights -- in fact, we don't even think about t we take it for granted that you're going to turn on the faucet and clean water to going to come out and you're going to drink it. and that has shakening the confidence in the infrastructure not only in flint but across the country. that's something we are addressing in this bill that is so very important. so i'm very pleased that we have a bill in front ever us that will comprehensively not only address a community that we have been fighting for and care deeply about but other communities around michigan and around the country. we meet the funding in this
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bill, the authorizations in this bill, because of a number of rngs. let me -- reasons. let me again, speaking about lead, there are 5,300 american cities who have been found to be in violation of federal lead rules. so you've got 5,300 cities right now that we know don't meet the standards for safety. and in "usa today" they reported that excessive lead has been detected in nearly 2,000 public water systems. -- across all 50 states. l sso this is an important billd it addresses something not only that i've been focused on and my colleague, senator peters, has been focused on, but that i know other colleagues are focusing on as well in communities in their states. frankly, there's no safe level of lead exposure, and even the smallest amount can harm people
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over their lifetime. one study from rhode island found a correlation between even the lowest levels of lead exposure and declines in reading scores. and there are certainly many, many other studies. so when we look at what's happening in this bill, the first thing i'm very pleased to say is that we have a provision that helps our community, who's literally been shut down -- not only families, bottled water, but can you imagine being a downtown strangts restaurant ane economic development going on. all of a sudden people don't want to come because they're worried the restaurant is using the city water system. and so now, in fact, it is totally safe to come to downtown flint and they're doing great efforts on economic development and revitalization. i was pleased to host the s.b.a.
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administrator a number of months ago talking with small business entrepreneurs who are excited about being in flint. but when we look at the broad ripple effect -- when a water system isn't safe, it's most importantly about families and children, but it affects small businesses, it affects the entire economy. so in this bill, we're very pleased that we have a provision fully paid for by phasing out another program that will help address this. we also address lead contamination in communities across the country. there is a very important loan program that was put in place by the chairman and ranking member in the last wrda bill but not activated, not funded, that we fund that will activate loans,
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$800 million, possibly more in loans available for communities all across the country. and this is something -- the structure was set up in the last wrda bill. now in this one we are actually funding it so that communities can activate very important loans to upgrade their water infrastructure. we also know that when we're looking at issues around lead contamination, we see across the country issues. drinking water in 22% of the homes in jackson, mississippi, was found to exceed the federal action lead levels this year. and i remember the mayor of jackson publicly saying, if pregnant moms, children -- don't drink the water. and it's not just water. 37 million housing units in the united states contain lead-paved paint, even though -- lead-based paint. even though we've come a long
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way, we've addressed lead-based pairnghts but we still have problems there in older homes that is still affecting chin. soil is another issue and certainly those of us who work with our farmers understand that, as a critical resource in growing our foods. in east chicago, indiana, tests showed lead levels were 2 2 times above the lead limit, and 35 times above the arsenic limit. pretty tough to be growing things when you've got that kind of contamination in the soil. imawthe top six inches of soil d up to 30 times more lead than the level considered safe for chin. atlantic city, philadelphia, allentown, pennsylvania, where over 500,000 children have enough lead in their blood to
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merit a visit to the doctor. so in this bill, we provide resources as well to address issues related to public health and lead in children. we know that we have for the 286 million americans who get their tap water from community water systems, this bill is an incredibly important investment in many different ways. it's necessary for public health and safety, it's necessary for economic development, and communities across america will benefit from this. i also want to thank the committee for once again focusing on something else we in michigan care about: the great lakes. you know, we are surrounded -- we have the peninsula.
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surrounded by water and beauty. another wonderful summer we just had, where boating and fishing and tourism is a very important part of our economy, as well as our way of life. in this bill, for the first time, we established the great lakes restoration initiative formally in law. and it would authorize $300 million for the great lakes restoration initiative over the next five years. and this is important for all of us in the great lakes states. it's also, i think, again an important part -- 20% of the world's fresh water comes from the great lakes. so it is a very important economic resource for all of us. this bill also authorizes new programs to help with drought by promoting innovative water technologies and research, for desalination and water reuse and recycling. and it authorizes very important
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army corps projects. there are 25 critical army corps projects in 17 different states. -- that are authorized in this legislation. it funds -- these are authorizations for infrastructure projects to protect and address concerns in communities in south carolina, in florida, in new jersey, and louisiana where weig we know abt the hurricane and storm damage. and flood control projects in texas and missouri, in kansas, in california. there are environmental restoration projects in oregon and in washington state. and there are additional dam improvement programs, new programs that allow fema to help rehabilitate high-hazard potential dams. america's 84,000 dams are rapidly aging, and 14,000 -- 14,000 of them are considered
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high risk, high hazards. we have about 88 of those dams in michigan. -- that are considered high hazard. so this is a bill that really touches every single state. i know members across the aisle have worked on this together. clearly, it is something that is very important to michigan, very important to families in michigan. the piece that allows us to support the 100,000 people in flint, michigan, is incredibly important for us. but we also understand that in the process of legislating, we've been able to support efforts and needs around the country and come together to do something that's important for communities in all of our states. i think that's really what legislating is all about,
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mr. president. as you and i know, we work together on many different projects that try to address concerns across the country. and, again, i want to thank the chairman and rank member for doing and outstanding job, for supporting our efforts, but also supporting efforts of other members and hopefully, as we work our way through this process and we can come together on commonsense amendments that relate to this bill, we can have final passage -- hopefully a very big vote on a final passage and send it to the house and hopefully our colleagues in the house will recognize how important this is to their districts and their states as well and we'll be able to get to the president as soon as possible. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:
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the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mrs. mccaskill: i rise today -- mr. cassidy: i rise today to
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honor corporal monroe jackson. it's been a tough, tough summer in louisiana. not only did we have the floods of which i spoke yesterday but we had a shooting with civil unrest afterwards and then three officers killed and several others shot. and so i will speak today to these officers. on july 17, the three men i mentioned gave their lives while protecting power community when ambushed reporting to a 911 call. deputy nick touile, nick simmons and officer chad montgomery were also injured during this attack. thankfully deputy simmons and officer montgomery have returned home to their families, but deputy touille remains in the hospital. please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. speaking of those who died, corporal jackson was a ten year veteran of the baton rouge police department, a loving husband to his wife tanisha and
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father to his four-month-old child mason. following the shooting of mr. sterling, he wrote on his facebook page i want to send prayers out to everyone affected by this tragedy. please don't let fate affect your heart. he served the east baton rouge sheriff's office for 24 years. he was a beloved son, husband and father to four children, and he was remembered for always selflessly trying to help others. at the time of his death. he again acted selflessly giving his life when he saw another officer down running to that officer who was injured during the attack and by doing so, exposing him to fatal gunfire. officer matthew gerald joined the baton rouge police department just last year.
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before this, he had bravely served our country in both the army and marine corps. between 2002 and 2009, matt completed three tours of duty in iraq receiving numerous awards and medals. prior to his service in the army he enlisted in the marine corps in noorls and new orleans and served four years. matt was a loving, son, husband and father -- and his wife recently announced she is pregnant with their third child. mr. president, each of these men shared common core values that guided them. service, stewardship and sacrifice. they put the needs and well-being of others before
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their own. scripture says greater love has no man than to give his life than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. in protecting their community, these men paid the ultimate sacrifice. i honor their lives and thank their families for their selfless service to the city of baton rouge, to the state of louisiana and to the united states of america. mr. president, i yield back. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.
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quorum call yoar quorum call:
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mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. cornyn: mr. president, as the presiding officer knows, we are working on a bill we call wrda around here, w-r-d-a -- which is the water resources development act bill. this is important to the entire country because what it focuses on is, obviously, clean drinking water but also the kinds of infrastructure that protect public safety and make commerce and transportation possible. i want to commend the leadership of senator inhofe, the senator from oklahoma, and senator
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boxer, the senator from california, the chairman and rairveggin--ranking member, fork they've done in et going us this far. but i wanted to mention in particular the application of this legislation to my home state of texas. texas understands that water is a precious resource and one that needs to be managed effectively. there is an old saying in texas that, whiskey is for drinkening and water is for fighting. it just demonstrates -- it's kind of makes you chuckle, but the point is that water is essential to life. it is essential to our agriculture community to be able to grow our crops and water our livestock. it is indispensable, but it's easy to overlook all the work it takes to craft good legislation, that looks out for the whole country's water supply and also protects our ports and waterways
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and helps guard against flooding, just a few of the projects included in this bill. back in april this legislation overwhelmingly passed out of committee, and i'm glad this bill serves as just another example of what we can accomplish when we put politics aside and work together in the best interests of the american people. i want to mention that i'm also grateful that this legislation includes part of a bill that i introduced last spring called the coast act. texas has hundreds of miles of coastline, and the state's location in the gulf of mexico makes it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes and storms and other weather impacts like flooding, storm surges, and high winds. i don't need to tell the presiding officer about that. louisiana having recently suffered terrible flooding. back in 2008, texans saw firsthand when hurricane ike made landfall, it became the
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second-costliest hurricane on record. and, of course, because the area is so densely populated and includes one of our nation's busiest ports and energy hubs, major damage along the texas coast would likely be felt well beyond our state in much of the rest of the country as well, particularly the economic impacts. so safeguarding the gulf coast from the next major hurricane should be a priority, not just to texas but a national priority, as i say bodge to those who live there -- as i say both to those who live there and those who would suffer the potential economic consequences. that's why this particular provision, the coastal texas protection provision and the water resources development legislation is so important. this is pretty straightforward. all it would do is require that the army corps of engineers take advantage of preexisting studiet have to duplicate those studies
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as a prerequisite to addressing this issue. so that the corps wouldn't have to duplicate efforts but could instead build on the good work of leaders in the state that have already done, so the texas coast can get the protection it needs sooner rather than later. fortunately, the water resources development act also includes projects that will benefit communities cross my state -- across my state like infrastructure improvements to help reduce flooding, provisions that make our ship channels more officiate, and -- efficient, and strengthen our ports to help them handle growing amounts of trade. i know there's a lot of discussion about trade, tuckly in the president -- particularly in the presidential election season. but i will tell you that trade is viewed as an unmitigated good in my state. we're the number-one exporting state in the nation, and that's one reason -- just one reason -- why our economy is growing faster than the national
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economy. we've learn add pretty simple lesson. that is, when you grow things, when you make things, and you have more people and markets to sell it to around the world, it's good for jobs, it's good for the economy, and i hope that some of our leaders and those who aspire to become the next president of the united states learn from some of the lessons that we have learned from in texas, that trade is good. that's mott to say that -- that's not to say with globalization there aren't some people disadvantaged, and we can address some of those concerns with funds dedicateed to retraining efforts. but the fact is more technologies, more globalization is change our economy and labor markets in ways we'll never be able to reverse. so we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water and just turn our back on the benefits of trade, which means we need to have efficient ports that are equipt to handle -- equipped to
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handle growing amounts of trade. in conclusion, on the water resources development act bill, let me just say again -- i express my gratitude to chairman inhofe and ranking member boxer for this solid, bipartisan legislation. and i hope it passes the senate soon. i trust it'll be out of the senate by the middle of next week. separately, mr. president, this weekend is the 15th anniversary of the terrible attacks on our country on september 11, 2001. it is impossible to forget the horrible events of that day and the pain and grief and mourning that our country felt. i think it's one of those seminal events in my life -- and ail sure i'm not alone -- that i'll always remember what i was doing and where i was when those planes hit the world trade center. it reminds me of when i was much younger when john f. condition -- our president -- when john f.
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kennedy, our president, was assassinated. i remember where i was and what i was doing. but i know people across this country will spend time honoring the victims and those left behind as well as the first responders and volunteers who put others before themselves in the wake of such destruction. one way that congress can honor the victims of that day and lend support to their families is by sending the justice against sponsors of terrorism act to president obama's desk for his signature. this bill would enable americans and their family members to pursue justice against those who sponsor acts of terrorism on the u.s. homeland, such as that that occurred on september 11, 2001. a few months ago, this legislation passed united states of americaly in the senate. arntiondz again, there's not -- and, again, there's not much
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legislation that passes this body unanimously, but this did. unanimous passage of this bill, i believe, sends an unmistakable message that we will combat terrorism with every tool we have, and just as importantly, we will make sure that simple justice is available to the victims of terrorist attacks on our soil by not erecting any unnecessary roadblocks to their pursuit of justice in the courts of law. i understand that the house of representatives will vote on this legislation, perhaps as soon as today or tomorrow, and i hope they send a similar message to the victims and their families on this 15th anniversary of 9/11. and finally, i hope that the president will rethink his previous statements that expressing an intends to perhaps veto this legislation, it makes absolutely no sense to prevent
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the families of terrorist attacks who suffered losses as a result of terrorist attacks on our soils to prevent them from their day in court, against whoever is responsible. this legislation does not purport to decide who is responsible but merely removes the impediments under the sovereign immunity act that prevent them from even presenting their case in court. it's time we hel -- helped victs of terrorism in our country to seek justice and it's time the act becomes the law of the land. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. i had neat the absence of a quorum. -- i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk should call the roll. quorum call:
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quorum call:
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the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coats: mr. president, thank you. today i return it to the floor
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for number 49, 49 weeks of coming to the floor talking about what we have described as waste of the week. we originally, we originally started this about 50 weeks ago in this cycle with some skipping weeks that we were not in session, trying to look at ways to make government more efficient and effective and to save taxpayer dollars. and we set ourselves a goal of reaching $100 billion because whether it was the congressional budget office, whether it was the inspector generals overseeing expenditures in the various agencies, we kept receiving these reports about money that is taxpayer money that is wasted through waste, fraud, and abuse. we have talked about everything from the ridiculous to the really serious in terms of
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mismanagement, fraud, waste that has occurred under this federal government, at a time when we cannot begin to balance our budget, when the expenditures keep significantly exceeding revenues that are coming in no matter how many taxes we collect, we find ourselves in a situation that we are continuing to borrow and borrow and borrow and borrow into the trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars, a truly unsustainable rate which will cause great harm to the american people at some point, if it hasn't already. clearly it's holding down our ability to grow. clearly it's putting us in a situation where expenditures on just paying interest on the money that we have to borrow continues to increase. depriving us of having the opportunity to address some
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essential needs such as infrastructure, some basic science, n.i.h. research, c.d.c., others are being squeezed because we simply don't have the funds available without continuing to go into debt. so this number 49 is one of the more minor ones. keep tuned in. next week we've got a big one coming. we could come down here almost every day and talk about something with the backup of -- backlog of waste, fraud and abuse documented by agencies that are nonpartisan. they're not republican, they're not democrat. these are agencies that just deal with numbers, they just deal with facts, and they report to us numbers of the senate and the congress, they report to us and make it available to the public to demonstrate that we could run a much better shop here and save the taxpayer a lot of money. today i want to highlight use of
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a fund that exists within the department of health and human services. it's called the nonrecurring expense fund, otherwise known as n.e.f. nonrecurring expense fund, another fancy description the federal government has put out so nobody can understand what it is. but we looked into this and found that the nonrecurring expense fund is a fund that was created to which money which wasn't used, appropriated by congress for specific purposes, but they didn't use all of it, but instead of turning it back to the treasury or the taxpayer, they said let's create a fund that we can put this excess money in that hasn't been used for the purpose it was designated and put it in a fund, and it will be there for use for some other purposes. you know how government works here. it's like never turn a penny of the money that has been
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allocated to you by the congress, because the next time it comes up on an annual basis for your allocation, they'll say they didn't need all that much money so let's give them less money next year. no, we don't want to be in that position. let's make sure we find a way to spend it. but anyway, the money sits here in this slush fund called the nonrecurring expense fund. it's supposed to be used for expenses that come up on projects maybe that come in over budget but they could go to the fund and take some money out and use it for specified purposes. all that was fine, i guess. i mean, i think it should have gone back to the treasury and they put a five-year limit on it. and if it's still there after five years it is supposed to go back to the treasury. well, along came obamacare, and, you know, all the promises. don't worry, it's not going to cost you a penny more than what's already being paid. if you like your doctor, you
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can keep your doctor. your premiums won't go up. and that was promised to us by the president on every declarative thing he said, he added, period. not one penny increase, period. keep your doctor. period. done deal, folks. trust us. of course none of that happened. obamacare seems to be collapsing under the weight of its own regulations and rules and operations. we read every day, almost every week of an exchange closing of premiums skyrocketing. we're in for a real big surprise this fall. some of this has been documented, but the numbers coming in about the increases in premium in the various states are staggering. people are dropping out. people can't afford to get in. on and on it goes. in any event, under obamacare,
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as we know when they set up the thing, the web site didn't work and people couldn't make the phone calls. so the expenditures have been significantly higher than what was, we were told and what was projected. and we're talking about big money here. so the administration thought, well, let's sort of look around, dig around. maybe we'll find a fund somewhere where there's some excess money that we can use to prop up obamacare rather than having to come back to the congress. this is money appropriated for a specific purpose and not to be used or tapped into to pay for some other failing program over here. but of course that didn't stop the white house from doing that. it seems that nothing does stop them, including laws passed by the congress. so in any event, they determined that, wow, here's a slush fund. it's got about $1.3 billion of money in it.
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so why don't we just take it. it reaches the rules and maybe even the constitutionality of the fact that congress appropriates money for specific purposes and puts it in specific places. and the administration doesn't have the right to simply go over there and say there's a pot of money over there. it's been sitting there. even though the law says it's been there over five years and it has to go back to the treasury, we'll ignore that and take that money and we'll apply it to pay for some of the bills on obamacare. and that is exactly what they did. so $1.3 billion was taken from a fund without a congressional vote, an abuse of power undermining congress' constitutional authority over appropriations. so, here we are adding to our total the $1.3 billion that could have been saved, that was
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not appropriated but not used. it could have gone back for any types of purposes. we're talking about trying to find ways to pay for zika funding. this is a serious matter. zika having an impact. we have known that. the opposition here, the democrats have voted three times to prohibit us from going forward with that. but one of the issues here is the pay-for that we are under. if we're going to start a new program or appropriate more money to a program, we want to find something else to pay for. here's a perfect way to do it, and the amount of money that's more than actually requested. $1.3 billion to be easily used as a pay-for for the zika problem. if we get to the c.d.c. and get out to the states and deal with this really significant and difficult problem. but no, no.
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had to go to obamacare. had to sort of once again fill the gap from expenditures that have gone all over the place. so what we've done is this could have been money that we could have saved the taxpayer or used for a better purpose. and under the waste of the week total here, we now are adding this $1.3 billion which brings our total to $2,40,785,726,81 and maybe 17 cents. we didn't put the 17 cents on there. it keeps going up. and here we are sitting on a total of nearly $241 billion of
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waste, fraud and abuse. fasten your seat belt folks. the next one coming in next week is a staggering number of once again documented waste, fraud, and abuse. mr. president, with that, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:
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quorum call:
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a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. a senator: mr. president, i wool ask for vitiation of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, we are in a race against time. the number of confirmed locally acquired zika infections in florida now totals 56. in puerto rico, it is estimated that 50 pregnant women are in infected with zika each day.
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there are now 67 countries and territories around the world reporting zika cases. the director of the centers for disease control and prevention has announced that the agency hasexhausted its current funds to combat the zika virus but thus far the republicans have refused to work with the democrats to actually provide the new funding in the race to find a vaccine. this is simply unacceptable. last month i visited off the coast of africa. i saw firsthand the devastating impacts of the zika virus. through a catholic relief services program, i met with mothers and their infants suffering from microcephaly, the birth defect which causes smaller brains and other developmental defects in newborns. i was able to meet with two loving moarns, dun -- mothers, duna and suli.
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both babies were born on june 5, 2016. the first case of microcephaly associated with the zika virus on cape verde was detected in march, just six months after the disease was declared an epidemic in the country. now there are more than 7500 reported cases of zika on cape verde and the number continues to grow. zika is a terrifying disease, a terrifying virus. it is the only known mosquito-borne virus that can cause birth defects and also be sexually transmitted. in addition to microcephaly, zika also has been connected to neurological effects in individuals at any age, including a link to the onset of gillian ba barre syndrome. one bite can damage the course of a life forever.
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we need only look back a few chapters in our own history books to understand how important it is for humanity to find a vaccine for a virus like zika. in 1953 there were 35,000 annual cases of polio in the united states. mothers and fathers all across america were frightened that their children would be next to contract the debilitating disease. two u.s. researchers, dr. albert saban and dr. jonea salt were locked in a race to invent a vac siege. they were both successfully. they have virtually eliminated polio around the world. now in 2016 millions of parents in dozens of countries around the world are once again praying that the medical community can be cat liesed to develop a
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solution to the disease threat, zika virus. we are fortunate that in today's race for a cure there are at least three leading zika vaccine candidates. last month i toured the laboratories at beth israel deaconess medical center in boston which is collaborating with walter reed army institute of research. their vaccine candidate has been found to offer universal protection against the zika virus in laboratory tests. the results were so promising that the vaccine will be tested in a small group of individuals, human beings this fall. there are two other vaccine candidates also showing positive results. one is made by the national institutes of health and the other by innovial pharmaceuticals. both are far enough along that they are already utilizing human subjects. but if the current trials involving just the small groups are successful, we will need to provide much more funding to cover the cost of expanding this
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research to thousands of participants. that next step in the zika clinical trials will cost if both of these candidates that i just mentioned are successful, it could cost upwards of 100 to $200 million beginning as soon as this january if these clinical trials are successful with small numbers of human beings. that's a small amount of money when one considers that the cost of caring for one infant born with zika-causessed microcephaly will cost potentially up to $10 million for the life of that baby. six months ago knowing the impeding and impending threat of zika, once we entered the warm mosquito-loving hot summer months, fueled further by
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climate change, president obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds from congress to combat zika. but instead of approving emergency funding at the start of the summer, republicans did unfortunately not finish the business that we should have finished before they recessed congress for seven weeks. families canceled their summer vacations out of fear while republicans made congo on vacation. meanwhile indications of zika here on our own soil in puerto rico and around the world ticked higher and higher. whether it's zika, ebola, sars, or the next tbloabal pan dem -- global pandemic, we simply can't treat every threat like a game of whack mole. comprehensive, emergency medical system that is put in place so that we can respond to all emerging infectious disease threats. first we need a federal fund
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that is readily available for use when a global disease threat presents itself. second, we need a single person at the white house responsible for organizing domestic efforts as well as liasing with our international partners in the face of an infectious disease pandemic. we did this on ebola. we should do it for every global health threat. the truth is, though, that on ebola, if we had already had a pandemic response team in place that we probably could have cut the amount of death and harm that was done by that disease by a dramatic amount. the most important thing right now is that we need the congressional republicans to stop playing politics and work with democrats to pass a real and serious response to the zika crisis, including emergency funding. the fastest way to do this for the house is to bring a
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bipartisan senate bill passed with $1.1 billion compromise bill to address the d.c. epidemic and bring it up for a vote. we've already passed that through the senate. so the house republicans should just take it up, vote on it, and we'll get it done because it's only a matter of time before the fear of local transmission in florida becomes the reality for nearly every state in this nation. that is why immediate funding is a critical component of the u.s. and global fight against the zika virus. we have the intellectual capacity to develop faster diagnostic tests, efficient jack seens and advance -- vaccines and advanced therapeutics for zika but what we need is the financial certainty to support this kind of work in an accelerated way. the next pandemic that await itself the global community is just one frequent flyer account away. this crisis demands that congress pass a zika funding package as soon as possible.
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the continuation of vaccine develop depends on it. our ability to stop the spread of the virus depends on it. and the lives of millions of people around the world depend on it. we won the race against polio in the 1950's. with accelerated funding we have the opportunity today. with these three vaccine candidates and others on the way to find a safe and effective solution to combat zika by 2018. it is time to recognize the threat to humankind and the impact such a harmful disease will have on an entire generation of children by ensuring our 21st century scientists, our sabans have the funding that they need to banish this virus to the history books. mr. president, i yield back the balance of my time.
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mrs. fischer: mr. president, i rise today to continue my contribute to nebraska's heroes and the current generation of men and women who have given their lives defending our freedom in iraq and afghanistan. each of these nebraskans has a powerful story, and today i will reflect upon the life of army captain rob yllescas of osceola, nebraska. rob's life began in guatemala, where he was born and raised. his mother barbara would often bring young rob to nebraska during visits to her family in osceola. when in nebraska, rob made plenty of friends and he fell in love with the good life. he also met a young girl named
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dina who would one day become his wife. after graduating high school in guatemala in 1996, rob moved to nebraska permanently, and he enrolled at the university of nebraska lincoln. he also enlisted in the nebraska army national guard. rob had always wanted to serve in the military, and he hoped to become a general one day. with this in mind, rob enrolled in army rotc at u.n.l. fate had something else in store for rob during his college years, too. he reconnected with dina. they fell in love, were engage add year later, and were married on january -- excuse me, they were married on july 29 in the year 2000. rob continued his studies and training, later graduating from u.n.l. in may 2001 and receiving
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his commission as a second lieutenant in the united states army. that august, rob and dina welcomed the birth of their first daughter, julia. a short time later, lieutenant rob yllescas began his first active duty assignment. on september 10, 2001. the very next day everything changed for rob, his family, and our nation. america's military priorities transformed dramatically, focusing on a new mission to combat terrorism. from the beginning of his military service, rob's commanding officers took note of his character and his leadership. one commander said, "yllescas was an extraordinary person to be around. he brought that lead-from-the-front mentality to
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his work." another soldier who served with the him said, "rob was strong as an ox with a smile as big as nebraska." over the next several years, life became fast-paced for the yllescas family. rob deployed to iraq in 2003 for a year and then he returned for a second deployment in 2005 when the fighting grew more intense. returning home to nebraska in 2006, rob continued to excel in the military, later graduating from army ranger school. rob achieved the rank of captain and was assigned to the 6th squadron of the 4th cavalry regiment. he took control of the blackfoots. l after nearly two years of training and earning the respect of his troops, rob learned he was deploy to afghanistan.
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shortly before his deployment, rob and dina welcomed their second daughter, eva, on february 1, 2008. upon arriving in afghanistan, captain yllescas and bravo troop were stationed at camp keating. this outpost located in the eastern province of norstan was known to many as the most dangerous territory in afghanistan. camp keating had been under constant attack since becoming operational in 2006. two prior camp commanders had been killed before the blackfoots arrived. once again, captain yllescas maude an immediate impact -- made an immediate impact. his lead-from-the-front approach earned the respect of his men and improved their relations from the local afghan leaders. rob carried himself with a grace that would calm the nerves of
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these community leaders and he often met with them unarmed and without that full battle rattle. but his care ismatic style and improved relations quickly became a threat to the enemy forces in the region p. camp keating, located in the kamdesh descrirkt, was known to the american troops as the tip. spear. al qaeda and taliban militants moved freely through this area from safe havens in pakistan. they filtered weapons and ammunition through this region to engage with coalition forces throughout afghanistan. one soldier described his tour at camp keating saying, "i was either extremely bored or extremely terrified." for months, captain yllescas and his blackfoots continued their
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focus on improving relations with the local afghan community and things seemed to be moving in the right direction. as captain yllescas made progress, he also drew attention of the enemy militants. by the fall of 2008, they were coordinating plans to remove this threat to their supply chain. on october 28, 2008, a remotely controlled i.e.d. was detonated and seriously wounded captain yllescas as part of a planned assassination attempt. rob was quickly evacuated out of afghanistan. he was stabilized and moved to the bethesda naval medical center outside of washington, d.c. throughout this time at the medical center, dina remained at his side. during rob's second week at bethesda naval medical center, president george w. bush visited him on november 10 and personal
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li a warded him the purple heart. rob's best day occurred when his daughter julia entered his hospital room. just seeing yulia seemed to ease his -- julia seemed to ease his mind. ultimately, rob's severe leg and head wounds were too much to overcome. captain robert yl levmen -- ylls died. a week later the auditorium in osceola was filled to capacity with people honoring their hometown hero. in the time since, dina and rob's mother barbara have become very active in the gold star family activities throughout nebraska. and his daughters julia, who is now 15, and eva, now 8, are now active in this cause. the two of them are well-noarn
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their beautiful voices and singing of patriotic songs at veterans events. for his service to our nation, captain rob yllescas earned many military decorations. among the many important badges and decorations he earned, captain yllescas was awarded the bronze star, purple heart, iraq campaign medal, afghanistan campaign medal, and the ranger tab. captain robert yllescas embodied the pride of his state, served his country, and loved his family. and i am honored to tell his story. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i yield. thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: mr. president, i rise today to voice my concern as an american and my outrage as
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a grandfather to be about the lack of action to fund our resmons to the -- response to the zika epidemic. zika has come to miami, florida, and congress needs to step up and pray the necessary fund -- and provide the necessary funds to fight this terrible virus. zika is like any other national emergency, understand w and we e a nation that always, always spreendzs to emergencies. and while i am a encouraged with the news that republicans are seeing fit to do their job and drop some of the conditions in their zika bill, wile which this body has voted down three times already, there is no, us could for any further gaye delay. no excuse for doing nothing while americans face a risk that we have the power to mitigate. the alarms have been ringing for months. we knew zika was coming, but instead of being proactive and prepared for what was about to
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hit our shores, republicans in congress chose to poison our response with right-wing ideological policy riders that prevented us from appropriately addressing this issue. and to make matters worse, rather than removing these unacceptable provisions from the bill, they simply chose to ignore it entirely and send congress on vacation without acting. since that time, we have had at least 43 instances of locally acquired zika in the miami area, and nearly 16,000 locally acquired cases in puerto rico. in the 50 united states, we now have 3,000 total cases, including those that were acquired outside of the country. and most frightening for families throughout our nation is that we know of at least 1,751 cases of pregnant women
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infected with zika, a truly devastating diagnosis for everyone involved. and today we've heard from the head of the national institutes of health's infectious disease institute that without immediate funding, the current on-going clinical trials into a zika vaccine will be forced to shut down, putting a halt to any real chance we have of developing a preventive vaccine in the near term. now, we, as democrats, have fought the opposition to pass the president's request for $1.9 billion to battle zika. in may, the senate in a compromise, a bipartisan compromise, agreed by a vote of 89-8 to fund $1.1 billion in response funding. but that bipartisan agreement was derailed in the house of
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representatives, where republicans insisted on adding a poison pill provision that had nothing to do with zika and everything to do with seizing the opportunity to pursue an antifamily political social agenda that would prohibit family planning clinics from getting zika funds, directly impacting the health of women in the most high-risk areas at a time that we know that zika can be contracted not only by a bite of a mosquito but by sciewsm intercourse. beneficiarbut by sexual intercourse. every major international organization from the center for disease control to the american congress of obstetricians and ginnologists has recommended that the best course of action is to increase steeks contraception and family planning services to decrease
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transmission of the virus. so today i call once again on the majority leader and the speak of the house to address this crisis now. let's do our jobs and help keep the american people safe, healthy, and secure by addressing this crisis with everything we have and all we can provide to women and families who face an emergency situation no less important and no less threatening than tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, or super-storms like san divment we need to -- like sandy. we need to quorum callly and decisively respond. we're already behind. we've lost critical time and sacrificed the progress we should have already made to political obstructionism that prevented us from providing what we need to ensure maximum protection. we need to act now, not
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tornlings not the next day, not next week -- now. but here we are seven months -- seven months after the president's original call for an emergency response to zika and five months, long before miami had become ground zero for the virus in the continental united states, five months before the first confirmed cases of locally acquired transmission occurred and began to spread. now, my republican colleagues talk a lot about national security, about defending this nation and its people. and i agree with them. but there are many ways to defend america from the many threats we face, and zika is one of them. if we believe what we say about keeping america and americans safe, then quukly pausing the necessary -- then quickly passing the next funding to defeat zika is in the personal security interests of the united states. we are dealing with a virus that is has tremendous costs.
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we do not yet know all the potential birth defects that zika can cause, and we do not know all the potential effects of microcephally to a newborn or the life expectancy of a zika baby. but the health care costs for the 31-year-old mother in hackensack, new jersey, who gave birth to the first zika baby born in the united states will no doubt be staggering. in the millions of dollars. at the end of the day, protecting our people from an insidious virus that ultimately can affect the next generation that is being born is in fact protecting the public. and in my mind, not acceptable to play politics with the national emergency. we can have all of the debates in the world about family planning and access to women's health care, but we are delaying the possibilities of a vaccine being prepared, of mosquito abatement to lim

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