Slaughter Floor Speech in Support of Continuing Resolution

**Video of her speech is available here**

WASHINGTON, DC — Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25) delivered the following remarks on the House floor last night in support of the bipartisan continuing resolution, which avoids a costly government shutdown and provides funding to address the Zika virus. Her remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:

Mr. Speaker, the deadline for keeping the government running has been staring us all in the face for months. Yet, the Majority is using a martial law rule to rush the continuing resolution to the floor for a vote just two days before the weekend deadline. We should have spent the last four weeks properly debating this bill under regular order.

Mr. Speaker, I’m relieved that a reasonable compromise was reached on a bipartisan amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that will authorize funding for the people of Flint, Michigan who have been forced to drink and bathe in poisoned water for years. As the only microbiologist in Congress, I can detail the many ways that this is a major public health failure.

The children that have been impacted could suffer everything from neurodevelopmental damage to behavioral changes to anemia to hypertension.

These are lifelong impacts, Mr. Speaker, along with a statistically higher risk of incarceration. This compromise is a positive step forward, but there is more work to do at all levels of government to get the resources needed to the people of Flint.

Thankfully, Mr. Speaker, this bill finally provides resources to tackle the Zika virus more than seven months after President Obama submitted his funding request to Congress to combat the spread of this virus and accelerate research into finding a vaccine.

Mr. Speaker, it is an outrage that the continuing resolution contains a poison pill rider that would continue preventing the Securities and Exchange Commission from moving forward with a rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their political spending. This is nothing more than an attempt to hide from the American people the identities of the big corporate donors that fund campaigns. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, but Mr. Speaker, electoral spending is increasingly being conducted in the dark.

It is also disappointing that despite overwhelming bipartisan, bicameral support, this continuing resolution fails to ensure that the Export-Import Bank is able to fully help businesses and workers across the country by restoring a board quorum to the bank.

This continuing resolution may avert a crisis in the short term, but it is a clear demonstration of the failure of the Majority to do its most basic job: fund the government.

The Majority has been so preoccupied with holding more than 60 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and investigating non-existent scandals involving Planned Parenthood that they have allowed this body to lurch from crisis to crisis instead of enacting long-term appropriations.

All the while, our infrastructure is crumbling and the cost of a college education is skyrocketing.

Mr. Speaker, CBS News has highlighted that it costs the taxpayers an estimated $24 million per week to run the House of Representatives. It’s abundantly clear that under the Majority’s leadership, taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth.

###