Subject: Talking Points -- House Republicans: #DoYourJob to Address the Zika Virus
From: Dem Leader Press Office <[email-masked]>
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 18:21:39 +0000

<democraticleader.gov>

May 12, 2016

Talking Points – House Republicans: #DoYourJob to Address
the Zika Virus

Do Your Job, House Republicans
For 80 days, House Republicans have also refused to act on President Obama’s urgent request for an emergency supplemental to confront the growing threat of the Zika virus.  There are more than 1,000 Americans – including more than 100 pregnant women – with confirmed cases of Zika, but House Republicans continue to dawdle in the face of this frightening and lethal threat.

Democrats are sending a clear message to the Republican Congress: do your job to keep the American people safe.

Every day, we learn more and more about the danger Zika represents to expectant mothers.  But House Republicans’ only response is reckless obstruction and unconscionable inaction.

·         The House GOP has now voted twice to block emergency resources to protect American communities from Zika.

·         Editorial boards<http://www.democraticleader.gov/newsroom/editorial-boards-to-house-gop-do-your-job-on-zika/> across the country are echoing House Democrats’ message to the Republican Congress: do your job to keep our people safe.

·         A Bloomberg editorial wrote<http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-28/congress-has-no-good-reason-to-delay-zika-funding?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5723067204d30163439880ef&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter>: “Whatever the explanation for Republicans’ truculence…it’s a delay that could endanger lives. There have already been 891 cases of Zika in the U.S., including 81 pregnant women. Republicans need to move, and quick.”

·         House Democrats will continue to press for swift action, holding a Steering & Policy Committee hearing<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZZTeJoeKGg> today on “The Zika Public Health Crisis: the Urgent Need for President’s Emergency Funding Request.”

And as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/11/nih-anthony-fauci-stalled-funding-raises-zika-threat/84234424/>:

“We have had to pull money out of other areas to get started…You can't sustain that for much longer…If we don't get the money that the president has asked for, the $1.9 billion, that is going to have a very serious negative impact on our ability to get the job done.”

Republicans’ radical and dangerous refusal to address the threat of Zika in a timely way could have tragic consequences for families across America.  But that brand of reckless intransigence is just what we’ve come to expect from House Republicans, who have blocked action on other urgent crises – including the Flint water crisis – for months.

Furthermore, instead of coming together with Democrats to pass a budget resolution that will create jobs and grow the paychecks of hard-working American families, Republicans have decided not to pass a budget at all.

The Republican-led Budget Committee, at the direction of the House GOP Leadership, put forward the most devastating ‘Road to Ruin’ budget in history, but the Republican majority has rejected the plan as insufficiently severe.  Here’s what was too weak to satisfy the radical forces that have seized control of the Republican Party; a budget that would:

·         End the Medicare guarantee for seniors;

·         Make $6.5 trillion in cuts – the sharpest cuts ever proposed by the House Budget Committee;

·         Devastate investments in good-paying jobs, education, and American infrastructure;

·         Repeal the Affordable Care Act and dismantle the affordable health care of 20 million Americans.

Hard-working families deserve a Congress that protects their safety and invests in their future.  Democrats will continue to press for action to keep American communities safe, and we will continue to make a simple appeal to House Republicans: do your job.

The Opioid Epidemic
Opioid addiction is inflicting a savage daily toll in every corner of the United States, and Democrats are pleased that the House is considering several bipartisan bills to address the opioid epidemic this week.

However, Democrats are very concerned that Republicans are failing the American people by not proposing the new resources that are necessary to meaningfully address the accelerating tragedy of the opioid epidemic.

·         According to the CDC, 78 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day – and many of them are young people.

·         In addition to passing these authorization bills on the Floor this week, we must also provide real new resources to ensure that the initiatives promoted in these bipartisan bills can be fully implemented and can reach all of the people in need of treatment for opioid addiction.

Yet yesterday, House Republicans voted to block bringing up H.R. 5189, the Democratic Substitute Opioids Package, introduced by Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH).  This package provides $600 million in fully paid-for vital new resources to address the opioid crisis that is affecting every region across the country, and every demographic group.

It is imperative that Congress provide the meaningful resources that are needed to make a difference and save lives.

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