Hoyer Discusses Need for Republican Leaders to Act on Zika Crisis on CNBC
Mariel Saez 202-225-3130
WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed the need for House Republican leaders to bring to the Floor bipartisan legislation to address the Zika virus on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Below are excerpts from the interview.
Click here to watch the interview.
“The President asked for $1.9 billion. That's what NIH and CDC, who are responsible for addressing the Zika crisis, say is necessary. But $1.1 billion is a good start. Sixty-eight members of the Senate in a bipartisan way passed us a bill that gave $1.1 billion to the Administration, at least to start and make a significant headway on fighting the Zika crisis. That's being held hostage, however, to Republican base issues. We should have passed the Senate bill, we haven't passed the Senate bill. We're now five months, six months after the President asked for the money, we know the crisis has gotten bigger, and the Republicans have not acted. I would hope they would put the bill on the Floor that the Senate passed overwhelmingly in a bipartisan way.”
“The Senate bill is a clean bill, yes, and we ought to pass it, and we can pass it. It has the votes on the House Floor. I guarantee you if [Speaker] Paul Ryan and [Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy would put the Senate bill on the Floor, every Democrat would vote for it and I'm sure a significant number of Republicans who are responsible, understand the crisis, understand we need to act, then we’d have the votes.”