With Congress back in session, U.S. Representative Patrick E. Murphy (FL-18) doubled down on his call for House and Senate leaders to immediately bring up a clean funding bill to combat Zika. It has been seven months since the President put forward a $1.9 billion emergency funding request, and Congress has yet to send him a bill to sign to address this growing public health crisis. Joining Murphy in leading this bipartisan push from the Florida delegation is U.S. Representative David Jolly (FL-13). Additional signers include U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown (FL-05), Kathy Castor (FL-14), Curt Clawson (FL-19), Carlos Curbelo (FL-26), Ron DeSantis (FL-06), Ted Deutch (FL-21), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Gwen Graham (FL-02), Richard Nugent (FL-11), Bill Posey (FL-08), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27), Dennis Ross (FL-15), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23), and Ted Yoho (FL-03). (Please find a copy of the letter attached and below).
"It is clear to us in Florida that Zika is not a partisan issue – it’s about protecting our families and our children. As the number of Zika cases across the nation continues to grow, including more than 50 local transmissions in Florida alone, this prolonged inaction is unacceptable," Congressman Patrick Murphy said. "We hope Congress will come together to take immediate action on a clean funding bill to provide the critical resources needed for this fight."
"As Floridians we are proud of our beautiful tropical community, but Zika has the potential to pose a public health crisis that could threaten our tourism industry and impact the well-being of our friends, families and neighbors. It is time to pass a comprehensive bipartisan funding package that will give health officials what they need to protect Floridians and others from the spread of Zika before this threat becomes a crisis,” said Congressman David Jolly.
Murphy has continually called on Congress to pass H.R. 5044, providing the full $1.9 billion in emergency Zika funding requested by the President in February. When no action was taken on this critical funding before the summer recess – and Florida saw its first locally-transmitted case – Murphy urged Congress to reconvene immediately and address this public health crisis. Additionally, he introduced the SMASH Act to provide resources for mosquito control programs and called on Florida Governor Rick Scott to expand Medicaid and release family planning dollars to help combat the spread of Zika.
Please find the full text of the letter attached and below:
September 8, 2016
Dear Speaker Ryan, Leader Pelosi, Leader McConnell, and Leader Reid:
As Members of the Florida delegation, it is our hope that Congress take immediate action to pass emergency funding to combat the Zika virus.
Seven months have passed since the Administration submitted its $1.9 billion request for Zika response efforts, and nearly four months since initial legislative action in the House. Emergency funding is needed now for vital vaccine research and diagnostic development, mosquito surveillance and control efforts, and education initiatives to warn of the serious risk the virus poses, particularly for fetal development in pregnant women.
In that time, the virus has taken hold in the continental United States, hitting our home state of Florida especially hard. To date, more than 16,000 Americans have been infected with the Zika virus, of which more than 1,600 are pregnant women. The spread of this disease has now resulted in 17 babies being born in the U.S. with Zika-related birth defects.
With federal funding for Zika response set to expire at the end of the Fiscal Year, Congress’ continued failure to act will halt federally funded vaccine research, mosquito control, testing, and surveillance.
Our most fundamental responsibility is protecting the health and safety of Americans. Please present a clean funding package to fight the Zika virus as soon as possible.
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