Press Releases

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) released the following statement after House Republicans’ refusal to take meaningful action on the Zika crisis:

“Repeatedly, Democrats have asked Speaker Paul Ryan to allow a vote on the President’s request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding for Zika. Instead of addressing this health crisis, Republicans are putting thousands of American families in harm’s way by providing less than a third of the resources needed to combat Zika,” DelBene said. “The bill passed by House Republicans tonight is nothing more than a shortsighted diversion of resources from one public emergency to another. We can and must provide the much-needed emergency funding to ensure our researchers, public health agencies, medical professionals and most importantly, women, are prepared to address this outbreak now.”

Earlier this week, DelBene joined more than 120 colleagues in calling on Speaker Ryan to hold a vote on President Obama’s full emergency funding request for $1.9 billion to combat the Zika outbreak.

Instead, Republicans passed a measure that would redirect existing funding from the Ebola outbreak as a short-term, patch-work approach to dealing with this new health crisis. The $622 million bill is also well short of the $1.9 billion request made in February.

More than 1,200 Americans have confirmed cases of Zika, including 113 pregnant women, and numbers are expected to grow as mosquito season ramps up.

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