Bill Nelson

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, the Senator from Wyoming knows my affection for him as a friend. The Senator from Wyoming is a great Senator from the State of Wyoming, and Wyoming does not have the threat as the southern States do in the United States as the summer comes upon us. The Senator has referred to the Cornyn amendment. The Cornyn amendment allowed for $1.1 billion, which was voted down. It was paid for by raiding the Affordable Care Act, and that is just not going to happen. Whenever an emergency happens, the tradition of the U.S. Congress is, in fact, to provide for that emergency on a basis that you don't have to go and rob some other piece of funding in order to pay for it. When a hurricane hits and if it hits Florida, I certainly hope you all are going to appropriate emergency funds. If there is an earthquake or the eruption of a volcano, fires--whatever the natural or manmade disaster that occurs--that is what a government does. One of the functions of government is to protect the health and welfare of the people, and sometimes that calls for the funding of an emergency. We don't have a lot of children with microcephaly that have been born from pregnant women here, but that is coming. We have already seen it. Wait until all of the Americans, including in the northern tier of States and the western United States, go to Rio for the Olympics. Wait until there is a further migration out of Puerto Rico, which is causing a brain drain because of the financial condition of that island and which we are not helping them with as we continue to dither about their financial distress. Wait until that migration of American citizens comes more and more from Puerto Rico to the continental United States and brings with them those infected with the Zika virus. All of this is about to happen, and it is about to explode. This Senator suspects that a lot of the people who are objecting to moving on this on an emergency basis are going to rue the day when they see the consequences. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I have been on this floor many times talking about Zika. I think some people believe in the old adage ``out of sight out of mind.'' It is equally as much, if not more, of a crisis--an international crisis--as was the Ebola crisis. Yet do you remember how everyone became so suddenly concerned about Ebola when there were only a couple of cases that showed up in the United States? Remember how we in this body suddenly rushed in and appropriated on an emergency basis several multiples of billions of dollars to address the Ebola crisis? I remember how successful that was even though Ebola is still raging in parts of western Africa. We are continuing to try to help out those African nations so it will not spread across the world and especially to keep it from coming here to our shores. The same thing is happening with the Zika virus, but people are not recognizing it. That is why this Senator continues to talk about it-- because we need the resources necessary to stop the spread of Zika. It is only a matter of time before there is a local transmission in the continental United States. What is a local transmission? Well, we know they put a fancy name on it. It is called vector. What is vector? The vector is a strain of mosquito called the aegypti. And, by the way, it is math. What happens across a lot of the coastal United States and southern United States in June? It gets hot, the rains come, and what comes along with that? Swarms of mosquitoes. Since this particular strain, the aegypti, is prevalent across the United States, up the west coast, the Pacific coast, up the Atlantic seaboard--much further than what you consider to be southern States--lo and behold, this strain of mosquito carries the Zika virus, and when it sticks its sticker into a human being and starts drawing blood, the virus is transmitted into the blood of the human being. Now you have a human carrier of the Zika virus that can be transmitted through sexual contact. But, lo and behold, if the carrier is a pregnant female, then that Zika virus--and the virus itself sometimes doesn't manifest itself in many ways; it might be like a mild form of the flu. But if it is a pregnant female, then there are some disastrous consequences coming ahead. Those are the horrible pictures we have seen--the microcephaly. The virus gets in and attacks the fetus and does not allow the fetus to develop, particularly with regard to the structure of the head and the brain, and that is what causes these terrible family tragedies. Last week we voted for $1.1 billion as part of an appropriations bill. We turned down Senator Rubio's and my proposal of $1.9 billion. By the way, did you notice a Republican and a Democrat coming together, saying: This is tough in our State. In our State there are well over 120 cases. There are also multiple pregnant women in Florida who are infected. Nationwide there are 1,200 Americans in 48 States that we know of who have been infected with the virus. We know that in Puerto Rico--the Centers for Disease Control tells us that 25 percent of that island's population of our fellow American citizens is going to be infected. That is in Puerto Rico alone--800,000 people. As a result of that infection in Puerto Rico, we saw the first case of microcephaly linked to the Zika virus reported in Puerto Rico. That was determined because of a miscarriage, and the fetus had all the markings of microcephaly. Prior to that, the CDC had confirmed the first Zika-related death in the United States that had also occurred in Puerto Rico. While we here in the Senate last week turned down $1.9 billion, which was the administration's request, we appropriated $1.1 billion. But guess what they did down at the other end of the hallway in the U.S. Capitol Building. They did only $622 million. And they want this to go to a conference committee to be worked out over time? Folks, it is late May and summer is upon us. These cases are going to become increasingly apparent. Now why don't we add Brazil into the mix? It is hot and humid. By the way, there is something happening in a few months in Brazil: People from all over the world are going to Brazil for the Olympics, and right now Brazil has more than 100,000 cases of Zika virus this year alone. This is a very dangerous emergency, and we are playing around and delaying. Congress has not stepped up and is failing the American people by not treating it as an emergency. It ought to be clear that it is up to us to protect our constituents, to stop the spread of the virus, and to do everything the administration has requested, including replacing the multiple hundreds of millions they raided out of the Ebola fund to try to get a jump-start on this because the Congress was sitting around on its hands, not willing to give the money. They borrowed from the Ebola fund, and we need to replenish that fund. That is a part of the $1.9 billion request. So, Madam President, I am going to ask unanimous consent that we proceed to a vote on this emergency. We ought to be trying to do the right thing. We ought to give the President and the public health experts the resources they need, that they tell us they have to have to stop the spread of this virus. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate receives from the House H.R. 5243, that all after the enacting clause be stricken; that the Nelson-Rubio substitute amendment to provide the $1.9 billion in funding to enhance the Federal response and preparedness with respect to the Zika virus be agreed to; that there be up to 1 hour of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; and that upon the use or yielding back of time, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I am waiting on Senator Reid, who will be coming here to make a motion with regard to the Zika crisis. While we have a moment, I want to set the table. Can you imagine being a pregnant woman in the southern part of the United States this summer in a poor county that does not have the funds for mosquito control? That pregnant woman knows that if she gets bitten by the aegypti mosquito carrying the Zika virus, there is a good chance the virus is going to infect the baby in her womb and could have consequences, all of which we have seen in these very disturbing photos of children born with deformed heads. As a matter of fact, the doctors in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell us that the baby can be born with no abnormalities but the abnormalities appear later in the child's development after birth. Can you imagine being a pregnant woman in the southern part of the United States in a poor county--a poor county such as counties in the State of the Presiding Officer--that doesn't have the funds for mosquito control? What about a rich county that has run out of funds budgeted for mosquito control? If you are going to control the Zika virus, you either have to have a vaccine, which they are working on, or you have to be able to stop the mosquito from being able to reproduce. They are working on genetic alterations, but both of those take time. In the meantime, there is only one thing to do.

Mr. NELSON. I want to finish my statement. In the meantime, if you don't have a vaccine and you don't have the ability to stop the mosquito population, the particular strain that carries the virus, there is only one thing to do, and that is mosquito control. That is what local counties, cities, and States are begging us now, as was indicated by the letter that I introduced from Osceola County, which is right next to the county of Orlando, Orange County. It is a relatively well-off, affluent county, but they don't have any more mosquito control funds. As we go into this summer with the rains, that raises the concern that it doesn't have to be a pond with stagnant water; it can be a bottle cap that is filled with water where the mosquito lays her larvae and they hatch. Yes, I will yield to the distinguished Senator from Texas.

Mr. NELSON. Indeed, this Senator is aware of that. Thank goodness there was this pot of money so that the administration could start this because we haven't been doing anything in Congress to produce the emergency appropriations. Thank goodness there was a pot of money they could borrow. Did you know that there is Ebola that is erupting in Western Africa right now? Don't we have a responsibility to replenish that Ebola fund? Mr. President, I said I was going to talk until Leader Reid arrived. He is here, and I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I like the Senator from Oklahoma. He is a great friend, and it pains me to reserve the right to object because I do consider him an excellent Senator. However, the issue he raises in his unanimous consent request is to take the emergency funding of $1.1 billion out of the appropriations bill and replace that emergency funding by raiding a number of funds that would cut medical research and public health in order to address the Zika virus. What I am talking about is raiding money from cancer research, children's immunizations, and the CDC's efforts to fight other infectious diseases that are already so important to the health and welfare of this country. The Senator, whom I consider a friend and a good Senator, is from Oklahoma in the heart of the country. Oklahoma is covered with these two strains of mosquitoes, both of which carry the Zika virus. This one is the real culprit. This is the one that gets inside your house. This is the one that lurks in the dark corners of the house. This is the one that lays larvae in a rain-filled bottle cap that is sitting upside down. I would say to the Senator from Oklahoma that this Senator has probably been bitten by more mosquitoes than any other Senator. There was a time when I was a kid that I was bitten so much that I was almost immune, but I do not want to be bitten by this critter carrying that Zika virus. The truth is, if you have an earthquake in the State of Oklahoma, that is an emergency, and we are going to respond in kind. If the Senator from Texas has a hurricane coming into Galveston, that is an emergency, and we are going to respond. Likewise, this is an emergency. If you don't realize it now in May, the summer months are coming. I want to make sure everybody understands why we need to get this separate from the appropriations bill that the Senator from Washington, Mrs. Murray, is talking about. In order to get an appropriations bill, we have to get an agreement with the House. The House just passed a bill for $622 million, and they are going to raid ObamaCare to pay for it. There is no way we are going to get an agreement that the President is going to sign going through that appropriations process. The summer is going to be long gone, and the aegypti is going to be biting all the more, sucking the blood of Americans, and therefore, while doing that, transmitting the virus into the bloodstream of Americans. This Senator has already described the disastrous consequences for a pregnant woman. We ought to be petrified if they are in a county where either it is poor and they don't have the funds for mosquito control or it is a well-off county and it is not budgeted and they are not ready. It pains me to have to clash with my friend, the Senator from Oklahoma. I object.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. What Senator Rubio and I have is an emergency appropriation of $1.9 billion, although it is not treated that way in this appropriations bill. The Centers for Disease Control predicts that up to 25 percent of our fellow American citizens on the island of Puerto Rico are going to be infected by the end of the year; that is, 800,000 people just there. Already in the United States, we have over 1,000 cases reported in 45 States; 113 of those 1,000 are in Florida. Most of them are in South Florida, Miami-Dade County. Yesterday we just had another case that brought that total to 113. Those 113 cases are spread all over the State of Florida. The community leaders, as indicated by this letter from Osceola County, are saying they are out of funds. Help. This is an emergency. With four reported cases of the virus so far just in that county, which is near Orlando, they have determined they will need to triple their annual budget for mosquito control. The county manager writes: This public health emergency has placed Osceola County under significant financial pressure. County resources are exhausted, and funds are not readily available to respond to this disaster. Lives are at stake. Think about what the House has done--a $600 million Zika bill. That is nowhere what we need. Such a figure is not only absurd, it is an insult to the men and women who are on the frontlines trying to battle this virus. These are local governments, such as the one I mentioned in Osceola County. We have an opportunity to respond. This Senator understands it is already baked in the cake. Even though this proposal by Senator Rubio and me is bipartisan, it is already baked in the cake that it is going to be the $1.1 billion, but beware. The crisis is looming. We haven't gotten an effective method for controlling the mosquito. We do not have a vaccine. All of these things take time, they take money, and it is going to need research. There is $277 million in this proposal that Senator Rubio and I think needs to go to the National Institutes of Health to accelerate their research for a vaccine and other basic research. When you compare the two competing provisions out here today--the committee position and ours--going to Puerto Rico, ours is $250 million. That island is devastated--$250 million for Medicaid funds. What is in the committee report is $126 million--half. For example, take the $743 million in our proposal for the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control. In the committee, there is $449 million. Overall, take the funding to HHS. There is $105 billion in ours and roughly half, $850 million, in the committee provision. I think we should not nickel-and-dime our response to what the World Health Organization has said and already declared a public health emergency of international concern. The urgency is now and we ought to do the right thing. I conclude by staying we have the Olympics in a few months in Rio. Brazil is covered with Zika infestation and infection. Remember, it cannot only be transmitted by the mosquito, the aegypti, but it can also be transmitted sexually. Also, remember the doctors do not know--other than to suspect that it can be transmitted to the pregnant woman any time during the 9 months of pregnancy and it may not show up in the infant until years later in some developmental issue. They do know that in the first trimester of pregnancy, the infected virus is producing the babies with microcephaly. Such a case was just reported with an infected pregnant woman in Puerto Rico. We have not heard the last of this, and you are going to see it magnified with regard to the Olympics. Sooner or later we are going to have to face the music. It looks like we are going to face the music with about half of the appropriation today. Ultimately, this is a full- blown emergency. I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON. I thank the Senator for his support because he recognizes the emergency.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I would say to the Senator from Missouri that while this Senator is most appreciative that he and Senator Murray have come forth in a bipartisan fashion with about half of the funding that this Senator--also in a bipartisan proposal, since my colleague from Florida, Senator Rubio, is the sponsor of this amendment with this Senator, I would point to the Senator's own words commending the administration that they recognized that this was crisis enough to go in and borrow $580 million from the Ebola fund to get started, since we couldn't get Congress off dead center until now. I commend Senator Blunt and Senator Murray for their action. I commend the leadership for being willing to put this on the T-HUD bill, appropriations bill, but for the Senator to suggest that he raised that point that it was such an emergency--$589 million--but the Appropriations Committee proposal only replaces the $589 million that has been taken from the Ebola fund. It replaces, replenishes it only with $88 million instead of $589 million. By the way, the news just broke. There is another outbreak of Ebola. This Senator is not here to talk about Ebola. This Senator is on the floor to talk about another health care medical emergency, of which there is well over 100 cases in this Senator's State of Florida. Senator Rubio and I are desperately trying to help. Before Senator Blunt leaves, I wish to say one other thing. He mentioned that we need to control the vector. What does that mean? The vector is the gremlin that spreads the virus; that is, the aegypti strain of mosquito. That mosquito is now all over the southern United States, especially in Puerto Rico, and mosquito control costs money. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from one of my counties, the Osceola County Commission, saying that they desperately need the funds as they are out of funds for mosquito control.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I want to give an update. The Zika virus is raging. It is certainly raging in Puerto Rico. It is expanding greatly in this country, and the State with the most infected cases is my State of Florida. I have been on this floor many times asking for the President's request of $1.9 billion to attack the Zika virus. About $800 million of that is, No. 1, to replace the Ebola emergency fund, which they have raided since the Congress has not given them the funding in order to try to get at the problem to begin with, which is somewhere around $500 million to $550 million. They need another $225 million to increase Medicaid in Puerto Rico, where it is now estimated that by the end of the year, 25 percent of the population of Puerto Rico--25 percent--will be infected because that is where this mosquito--called the aegypti mosquito--that transmits the virus is raging, but beware, especially as we are going into the warm summer months, this aegypti mosquito is all over the Southern United States. Anyplace that is hot, humid, and where there is rain--because rainwater will not all dissipate. It may be in a bottle cap. It may be in a dishpan. It may be in a birdbath. Where there is stagnant water, that mosquito will lay its larva, and that is the breeding ground to hatch the aegypti. About 1\1/2\ weeks ago, when we were here before the recess, there were approximately 1,000 cases reported in the United States, which included 570 in Puerto Rico and 94 in Florida. Now, just a little over a week later, it is already up to 1,133 cases across the country--up to 629 in Puerto Rico and 107 in my State. Just today, two more cases were reported by the Department of Health in the State of Florida. The bottom line is, the virus is spreading, and it is spreading quickly. Not only is it spreading, but the CDC confirmed the first Zika-related death of a 70-year-old man who died of complications in Puerto Rico. Over the break, I met with a group of Puerto Rican leaders in Florida. Basically, Puerto Rico does not have the resources it needs to provide protection from the virus. I was just talking to Senator Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, about getting the financial crisis addressed in Puerto Rico. We can see how that is spilling over into not being able to attack the Zika crisis where it is raging out of control because of the transmission in Puerto Rico by these mosquitos. Out of the 3.5 million population of Puerto Ricans on the island, it is estimated by the CDC that 800,000 of them could be infected by the end of this year. So that U.S. territory--remember, they are American citizens. These are fellow Americans who are in trouble--is struggling under the weight of crippling debt in the financial crisis, and we haven't helped them yet. They have a Medicaid Program that is capped and it is running out of cash. The physician shortage is getting worse. What is happening is that because of the financial problems, the professionals--the doctors and lawyers and nurses, especially those in health care--because they cannot get compensated, they are leaving the island and going to the mainland. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that something between 85,000 and 100,000 may be leaving the island this year, coming to the mainland United States. The benefit is that a lot of those professionals are coming to Florida, but look at the gaping hole in health care that is leaving for the island. It seems to me that as Senators, it is our duty to protect our fellow Americans and curb the spread of this virus now. So I have introduced what the administration requested. I have had Senators say we have not given a plan for the $1.9 billion. I have given the plan over and over until this Senator is blue in the face. There is a specific breakout that I have entered into the Record several times, the last of which was when we were last in session 1\1/2\ weeks ago. The bill has 35 cosponsors, but unfortunately there is not one Republican Senator who is a cosponsor. It doesn't make sense. The spread of the Zika virus is not a partisan issue, and yet it seems to have been characterized that way. I urge our colleagues to come together on this for the good of the American people. For their health and safety, let's approve this $1.9 billion emergency request. This is the same kind of emergency funding request that would be in the aftermath of an earthquake, a hurricane, or some other natural disaster. It has now affected the American people. It is an awful virus, and we need to get at it and stop it before it is too late. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I will talk about the Zika virus, but I want to first add a comment about Senator Bob Bennett. A gentleman's gentleman, a legislator's legislator, a Senator who would reach across the aisle in order to get the workable consensus in order to get something done. Doesn't that sound like the type of person we need in the Congress today in order to confront the issues we are facing? I was saddened to hear the news he had passed on.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. In answering directly the question of the Senator from Texas, before he objected, he wanted to ask this Senator a question as to what is the plan.

Mr. NELSON. Will the Senator yield, Mr. President?

Mr. NELSON. All right, I will put it in the form of a question. Does the Democratic leader believe that this Senator has spoken many times on the floor laying out the specifics of the request of $1.9 billion, which includes the replenishment of $589 million to the Ebola fund which had been advanced to fight this emergency? Does the Senator believe that? And does the Senator further believe that I have in my hand that breakdown that I have had printed in the Record?

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, will the Senator yield before he makes the request?

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for yielding. I wish to add to his comments from this Senator's personal perspective. The State of Florida presently has 94 infected cases that we know of, including 5 pregnant women whom we know of. We also have a very mobile and sizeable population of Puerto Ricans who go to that island, where, lo and behold, it is estimated that up to 20 percent of the population could ultimately be infected. There are upwards of close to 100 cases--multiple hundreds--that we know of. I think the actual number is in the eighties of pregnant women whom we know of who are infected in the United States. As the leader has already described, this has horrendous consequences, not only to the families but there is also the cost to society because of the deformed babies that result--and not necessarily at birth. These defects may come years later, but that is a huge cost to society, not even to speak of the human tragedy. So is it any wonder that I join with the minority leader in begging for this emergency appropriations of $1.9 billion. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a summary of the amendment and a letter from the President detailing his request be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I rise today to speak about the rapid rise in child poisonings caused by single-use laundry products. Earlier today, we had an update on the number and severity of these poisonings from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It was in an indepth study just published in their journal, Pediatrics. The news is not very good, because in 2013 and 2014 that academy reports that there were over 22,000 child exposures to laundry products, resulting in the deaths of at least two children due to the chemicals in these pods, and many others have faced serious injury, with at least 17 children in that time period going into comas because of exposure to these chemicals. What am I talking about? This is a laundry pod. It is very colorful on the outside, and it smells very good. It is quite soft. Its texture, particularly to the touch of an infant--an infant's hand and face--is very soft and reassuring. The problem is that if it gets into an infant's hand, where is it going to end up? It is going to end up in their mouth, and these packages are soluble. So, naturally, the plastic exterior is going to dissolve, and all of these chemicals are going to end up in the child's digestive system. As a result of these pods, we have had two children die, and we had 22,000 child exposures in that 2-year period the study covers, with 17 children going into comas. Others have suffered seizures or internal burns to their lips, mouths, and the esophagus. If it gets into their esophagus and burns, then you have a problem. Now, what we have been advocating, Senator Durbin and I, in our legislation is to make them as safe as possible and to get the Consumer Product Safety Commission involved in these things. This Senator has met with the industry. Let me show you some of the things in which, indeed, they have made progress. This is a detergent pod package, and in order to get in it--and this pod came in this packaging--you have to tear it open. That is one good thing. They have designed this container so that it would be very difficult to get into. Even I am having difficulty getting into it. The pods would be in this container--something that would be child proof. They designed this container. This has one of those slide bars, such as on a plastic sealant freezer package, where you have to push down on it and apply pressure in order to get the slide that unzips the seal. That is also a good thing. But let me show you what the industry is resistant to doing. Children are naturally attracted to colorful candy. Here shown on this chart are a variety of candies, such as gummy bears, but among all of these are interspersed some of these pods. This is one. This is another. This is another, and this is another--not unlike the colors on this pod. So if we don't have the packaging preventing the child from getting to this pod, then we are going to have a problem, which is why we lost two children and 17 others went into comas in the last 2 years. Now, a lot of people like these products, and so does the Nelson family. They serve a very useful purpose. At the same time, we need to make them as safe as possible. So why not just remove the color from the package and make it less attractive to the child. Last year, Senator Durbin and I introduced legislation that would require better labeling, more child-resistant packaging and safer chemical formulations for these single-use laundry pod products. The bill has been referred to our Commerce Committee, and as the ranking member of that committee, I am going to talk again to Senator Thune, who is the chairman of the committee, to see if we can get the committee to take up the bill as soon as possible. Earlier this year, we were able to get both the House and the Senate to pass legislation requiring childproof packaging for bottles of liquid nicotine, some of which had injured children and, in some cases, resulted in death as well and had poisoned thousands of others. If we could get that done in a bipartisan manner, which we did and that is now law, then there is no reason why we can't, in a bipartisan way, address the issue posed by this problem. Keeping children safe is not a partisan issue. It is just common sense. In the interim, we want to encourage the manufacturers to keep working on new standards to reduce the poisonings. We appreciate very much the efforts at things such as this and this. That is helpful. Last week, one manufacturer announced plans to put many of the laundry pods they sell into new, more child-resistant packaging. They also announced a public education campaign urging parents to keep laundry pods away from their children. That is certainly helpful. But at the same time, we need to keep working to make these pods less attractive to children and, perhaps more importantly, make the chemicals inside these less toxic so that when a child does get hold of one and it goes into their mouth, it is not going to turn into tragedy. I thank the American Academy of Pediatrics for their very important study, and I look forward to working with our colleagues to put an end to the accidental deaths and poisonings that we see as a result of these attractive products. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to use articles as examples relevant to the subject of my speech.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I rise to announce that Senator Reid of Nevada and I will be introducing legislation that is the President's emergency funding request to respond to the Zika virus. I have been on the floor many times talking about the ravages of the Zika virus. It is up to 91 cases in my State of Florida. Fortunately, none of them originated in the State. It is all because of a mosquito bite or some other means of transmission, such as sexual contact, that has been done outside of Florida. That is particularly true in the warmer climates of the Caribbean, Central America, and Latin America. We know the devastating consequences of someone getting this virus-- not as a virus, because it has the effects of a mild flu, but if a mosquito infects a pregnant woman, the researchers understand that if it is any time during the 9 months of the pregnancy, it has the disastrous consequences of severe deformities. What is the result of that? The result is not only trauma to the family involved, enormous tragedy, but look at what the social cost is going to be. The World Health Organization declares this a public health emergency of international concern. The last time the World Health Organization declared such an emergency was for Ebola. Last week our CDC announced that it is ``scarier than they had initially thought'' and that it could be linked to other birth defects, not just the shrunken head and brain that is so horrendous to see pictures of. This isn't just in Florida; 800 Americans in 40 States and territories have been infected. Of course, my State, with 91 cases, has been hit the hardest, and it has spread across 15 counties. The three most recent cases were in the Miami area, and in Florida it includes five pregnant women. Now we are going into the warmer summer months, and this is when the mosquitos breed all the more. This particular mosquito carries the dengue virus, which has its own drastic consequences. This mosquito is all over Puerto Rico. There is an estimate that 20 percent of the population of Puerto Rico may eventually be infected. If that is the case, you can wonder, out of that 20 percent of the population, how many are pregnant women. In a territory of the United States where American citizens reside, you can start to see the extreme depravity and social cost that will result, all at the same time that Puerto Rico is going through this tremendous financial crisis. Yesterday I spoke at length to Senator Hatch, the chairman of the Finance Committee. I believe he and his staff director are quite sincere about trying to do something about the financial condition of Puerto Rico, but now, on top of that, this additional plague is added. At the end of the day, we have to do whatever we can to help Puerto Rico in its financial crisis but now especially to help curb the spread of this virus. It is also in Haiti. It just so happens that we have a large Haitian American population in Florida. It is particularly running rampant throughout South America, including Brazil. Guess what is going to happen this summer. The Olympics will be in Brazil, and people from all over the world will be going. It is time to address this problem head-on with the administration's request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding. There are rumors that the Appropriations Committee is looking at a figure of $1.1 billion by stripping out the $250 million that would go through CMS because of the Federal Medicaid assistance increase to support Puerto Rico's Medicaid Program. What have I just said? They are already in crisis, their Medicaid funds have already been cut, and now we are not going to give this assistance to a population where 20 percent is going to be infected? The Appropriations Committee shouldn't cut out that $250 million. There is also the rumor that the Appropriations Committee is going to cut out some $589 million of the request that would go back to replenish the Ebola crisis fund; that in order to meet the emergency, the administration took that money--just under $600 million--over to address the Zika crisis until we can get off our duffs here in Congress and appropriate the emergency appropriations. I hope the Appropriations Committee will think twice before they cut out the money for Medicaid in Puerto Rico and replenishing the Ebola fund. That crisis still goes on, but the success of our being able to get on the Ebola crisis from 2 years ago is why we need to receive that added source to stop it. Otherwise, the consequences will be that the Ebola crisis will come back to the United States. This is truly an emergency. I am calling on our colleagues to approve the President's $1.9 billion emergency funding request now, in the immediate future, not later. The cost of inaction would be great and the consequences devastating. We don't want to have to say in the future: I told you so. I am introducing this legislation. More than likely, it will later be considered possibly as a stand-alone bill but possibly also as an amendment to one of these appropriations bills. I urge our colleagues to support this $1.9 billion emergency assistance request.

Mr. NELSON

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I rise to announce that Senator Reid of Nevada and I will be introducing legislation that is the President's emergency funding request to respond to the Zika virus. I have been on the floor many times talking about the ravages of the Zika virus. It is up to 91 cases in my State of Florida. Fortunately, none of them originated in the State. It is all because of a mosquito bite or some other means of transmission, such as sexual contact, that has been done outside of Florida. That is particularly true in the warmer climates of the Caribbean, Central America, and Latin America. We know the devastating consequences of someone getting this virus-- not as a virus, because it has the effects of a mild flu, but if a mosquito infects a pregnant woman, the researchers understand that if it is any time during the 9 months of the pregnancy, it has the disastrous consequences of severe deformities. What is the result of that? The result is not only trauma to the family involved, enormous tragedy, but look at what the social cost is going to be. The World Health Organization declares this a public health emergency of international concern. The last time the World Health Organization declared such an emergency was for Ebola. Last week our CDC announced that it is ``scarier than they had initially thought'' and that it could be linked to other birth defects, not just the shrunken head and brain that is so horrendous to see pictures of. This isn't just in Florida; 800 Americans in 40 States and territories have been infected. Of course, my State, with 91 cases, has been hit the hardest, and it has spread across 15 counties. The three most recent cases were in the Miami area, and in Florida it includes five pregnant women. Now we are going into the warmer summer months, and this is when the mosquitos breed all the more. This particular mosquito carries the dengue virus, which has its own drastic consequences. This mosquito is all over Puerto Rico. There is an estimate that 20 percent of the population of Puerto Rico may eventually be infected. If that is the case, you can wonder, out of that 20 percent of the population, how many are pregnant women. In a territory of the United States where American citizens reside, you can start to see the extreme depravity and social cost that will result, all at the same time that Puerto Rico is going through this tremendous financial crisis. Yesterday I spoke at length to Senator Hatch, the chairman of the Finance Committee. I believe he and his staff director are quite sincere about trying to do something about the financial condition of Puerto Rico, but now, on top of that, this additional plague is added. At the end of the day, we have to do whatever we can to help Puerto Rico in its financial crisis but now especially to help curb the spread of this virus. It is also in Haiti. It just so happens that we have a large Haitian American population in Florida. It is particularly running rampant throughout South America, including Brazil. Guess what is going to happen this summer. The Olympics will be in Brazil, and people from all over the world will be going. It is time to address this problem head-on with the administration's request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding. There are rumors that the Appropriations Committee is looking at a figure of $1.1 billion by stripping out the $250 million that would go through CMS because of the Federal Medicaid assistance increase to support Puerto Rico's Medicaid Program. What have I just said? They are already in crisis, their Medicaid funds have already been cut, and now we are not going to give this assistance to a population where 20 percent is going to be infected? The Appropriations Committee shouldn't cut out that $250 million. There is also the rumor that the Appropriations Committee is going to cut out some $589 million of the request that would go back to replenish the Ebola crisis fund; that in order to meet the emergency, the administration took that money--just under $600 million--over to address the Zika crisis until we can get off our duffs here in Congress and appropriate the emergency appropriations. I hope the Appropriations Committee will think twice before they cut out the money for Medicaid in Puerto Rico and replenishing the Ebola fund. That crisis still goes on, but the success of our being able to get on the Ebola crisis from 2 years ago is why we need to receive that added source to stop it. Otherwise, the consequences will be that the Ebola crisis will come back to the United States. This is truly an emergency. I am calling on our colleagues to approve the President's $1.9 billion emergency funding request now, in the immediate future, not later. The cost of inaction would be great and the consequences devastating. We don't want to have to say in the future: I told you so. I am introducing this legislation. More than likely, it will later be considered possibly as a stand-alone bill but possibly also as an amendment to one of these appropriations bills. I urge our colleagues to support this $1.9 billion emergency assistance request.

Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.