Be safe and prepare for the hurricane. Other members showing what they are doing academic on district districts. Home senator gary peters. Take more of a weeklong motorcycle ride. He stopped by a port farm. Farm. K in maine, a picture of the windsor fair. Some of the entertainment is the demolition derby. Congressman dave joyce visiting a fair in his home state of ohio. A picture of him and that definite who runs the fair. And a gentleman who runs the fair. And then tim scott, a sickle cell patient. He brought the patient there some chick fully. Chick fil a. We will bring you live coverage of the house on cspan and live coverage of the senate over on cspan2. We put together a little preview of what to expect from congress and they reconvene asked week. When they reconvene next week. Carters returns from the summer recess on tuesday. We will preview for key issues they are expected to take up. Zika funding. Defense policy. Done violence legislation and the possible impeachment of the irs commissioner. We will get an update on those issues from a capitol hill report. Well start with a look back at how congress has dealt with funding to combat the zika virus. They voted to block seek funding on july 14. Harry lead and texas senator theirornyn explained views on the issue. Again, i assume my friend believes that you keep talking about something that is untrue. Take busy get by the zika virus. Mosquitoes are ravaging and her run this. Karen this. Horrendous. They have been dangerous and terrible. That is since recorded history. They cause death and illness. It is hard to copper head. For the first time in the history of the world, we have a mosquitoes breading a buyers that causes women to have deformed babies. Badly deformed babies. Did, on a bipartisan , they got together and came up with a zika funding measure. I thought it was an etiquette inadequate. We agree with the centers for Disease Control for 1. 9 billion. Well go along with this because it is an emergency. All emergencies, whether it is flood, fire, wind, this is an emergency. 1. 1 billion, no offsets. We passed that with 89 votes. Every democrat and virtually every republican voted. Went to the house of representatives. s logicwhere my friend comes in. Remember, what we sent to the house of representatives. Here is what they sent back to us. There is no disputing this. Under the bill we got back, planned parenthood, an organization where hundreds and thousands of women go further , where inr their care america women in america want to make sure they have the ability to not get pregnant. Why . Because mosquitoes ravage pregnant women. Under the logic of my friend, their public and leader, theyll need to go to the imperative. They can go to their voting dr. Boutique doctor. Roomsan go to emergency and say im sorry, i did not birth control. Can you help me . That is a planned parenthood is poor. The vast majority of women who need help, that is where they go. Legislation we got back from the house, there is no money to be provided for that. President , we know that the peoplecans dont like like environmentalists. What did they sent to us . Send to us . They had to do something to attack the environment. Theyre going to eliminate the cool water act which makes it extreme and dangerous. Extremely dangerous. That is why the epa looks at the so closely. The clean water act is the law of this land. The republican gets a. Talks about this. Mr. President , the bill we got back as a relates to seek a z ika takes 509 from the veterans 500 million from the veterans administration. What was it to be used for . Processing climbs claims. A way to speed up better and claims. Veteran claims. Give them 509 to speed them up. 500 million to speed them up. Ravaging epidemic swept africa 10 years ago. Ebola. It was terribly hurtful to africa. People in america were afraid. Doctorsurses and leaving to treat it. It is still around. They are still putting out it. The bill we got back from the house took 100 79 from ebola million from07 ebola funding. Fundone is that helped zika. Effort to show how crazy they are over there in the house as Speaker Boehner said, they cannot get something passed their unless they did something there unless they do something to take care of the rightwing crazies. The struck a prohibition on confederate flag. They wanted to be able to apply it fly it. How could anyone with a conscience vote for that . We are not going to. Moments ago our democratic colleagues killed another test. I tested whether they care more about American Families a test whether they care more about American Families or special Interest Groups. This is what im talking about. It tested the test they failed is one to see whether they care more about averting these devastating birth defects caused by the zika virus or whether they care more about the special Interest Groups that raise money off of legislation designed to solve problems and prevent Public Health disasters like this. Unfortunately, they made the wrong choice. This is what the zika virus can do. This is an example of aggressively microcephaly. You can imagine what this does to the babys brain, what this means in terms of trying to provide medical care, tried to make sure this baby trying to make sure this baby has a comfortable life until it passes away. The prognosis, the Life Expectancy of a baby like this is not very good. That is an understatement. Preventable disease. Eradication, with proper precautions that people take, lawton not leaving standing water in places where mosquitoes can reproduce, if we do our job here by providing be Adequate Funding needed to avert this Public Health crisis, someday, hopefully not too long, socan come up with a vaccine pregnant women do not have to worry or live in fear that this might happen to their baby. Just yesterday, the Harris CountyPublic Health office in confirmed the first baby in texas born with zika racists related microcephaly. This tragedy depicted by this photograph israel. It is at our doorstep. This case was one where the woman involved had traveled to south america where we know the zika virus is present. All of our Public Health officials are telling us that it is slowly working its way up from central and south america and is literally at our doorstep. This is not the time to refuse to do our duty. And simply coast through the rest of the summer. Were talking about lifelong irreversible problems that take lives in effect alias for years to come. Experts across the country that had visited with i have visited with, they say we need to act. They are not alone. When ijust last may democratic colleagues asked us to act with urgency. Today, they turned down the very money that they had argued for the last month. Last may. They decided to gamble with the lives of children like this. Instead of protecting them. They ignored their own calls to get this done quickly. They have refused to pass urgent measures that would protect the country from a Public Health crisis. As i have said when i started, this is a test today to see whether our democratic colleagues care more about babies like this or special Interest Groups. They failed. It is as simple as that. I want to make sure everyone understands how we got here. Two months ago, a bipartisan agreement was introduced to handle the zika threat. That was two months ago. The senator worked together as we are supposed to do to come up with a bipartisan compromise. Week after was introduced, it passed. Overwhelmingly. Theone democrat opposed 1. 1 billion appropriations amendment that was attached to the military construction appropriations bill. Until recently, they seemed to agree with us. This is a major Public Health crisis. Particularly as i have said because we expect the mosquitoborne virus to hit the mainland in places like texas, florida, louisiana and other warm parts of the country. We expect it to hit the u. S. Mainland in full force as temperatures continue to rise. The legislation we passed here in the senate was reconciled as it is explode supposed to be. The bicameral, bipartisan compromise is what we considered earlier today. After Senate Democrats decided to block it for the first time a few weeks ago. After they called upon us to pass the bill in may, they decided it was on its urgent as they once said. For months now, Senate Democrats have talked about the need to get this legislation passed to prepare us the zika virus. Leader whodemocratic said this on may the 23rd, 2016. It is not july the 15th. He said, instead of gambling with the health and safety of millions of americans, republicans should give our nation the money it needs to fight is he got, and they should do it now. Not next month, not in the fall, now. This is the democratic leader. Requestdelivered on his that he made on may the 23rd, he yess no you that he voted to pass the senate bill at the same level at this conference at this conference report provided. As this conference report provided. Amazing reversal, senator murray of washington, he worked missouritor blunt from to, with the original amendment, his ownvoted against amendment. But in may, hes hearing a different tune. He said amylase and communities are expecting us to act. Terrance are wondering if their babies will be borne safe and healthy. In congress, we should do everything we can to tackle this virus without any further delay. That was on may the 26th, 2016. Senatorgain, the same who said these words voted no. You have to ask yourself, why . What do they consider that is more important than stopping this . What could it possibly be . What could be more important, more demanding . What could be a higher priority than voting to fund the research and prevention that would stop this from happening . It does not end there. Heard onrisy we have june the 20th, the senior senator from new york, the next democratic leader in waiting said, every day we wait, every day is increasing the risk that we will have problems with zika. That is not exactly a profound statement, but it is a true statement. My point is, people are pretty disgusted with what they have seen here in washington these days. People rather than trying to find consensus, they find ways to say no and to block important legislation like this. Definition ofry dysfunction. I have to tell you, i am beyond disappointed at the hypocrisy demonstrated by all of our Senate Democrats voting for the funding at the 1. 1 billion level we now for the second time to vote against this rescue appropriation to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Is the on frustrating. It is disgusting. If theres anything good in this, i would say fortunately, months ago, the Obama Administration finally agreed with Senate Republicans to set aside more than 500 million for unspent funds for the ebola crisis. Was 580 99 that was set aside for that purpose. 589 million that was set aside for that purpose. That is no excuse revealing to act comprehensive lee. Ly. Comprehensive this is nothing to play around with. This is a life altering, a devastating birth defect that is preventable. What could be more important . It is our job to send this bill to the president s desk. As long as i Senate Colleagues refused to do so refuse to do so, as long as they refuse another chance to protect our children from devastating birth affects, theres not much we can do about it. There is something the American People can do about it. Write to the and senator, they can say, i dont is, itat your objection better be pretty darn important if youre going to block funding that would prevent this from happening to my baby. Health experts across our country need the resources to study the virus, to contain the virus and to keep it from spreading. Hopefully tod, develop a catching vaccine. For the democratic collect to block their legislation again months after saying it was urgent, and amounts to tying the hands of our doctors, local Public Health officials and researchers from city to city. Responsibility rests with them. When we see locally transmitted cases of the zika virus in the United States caused by mosquitoes carry the virus, the responsibility will be with them for refusing to act in light of the call by Public Health officials that this is a real Public Health emergency. To take this bill hostage is not only hypocritical, it is profoundly irresponsible. I dont know how some of our colleagues can sleep at night knowing they are putting these babies and families at risk. There is no excuse for blocking this critical funding. As i have said, there is a test that was taken today and our democratic colleagues failed. Joined on capitol hill, congressionalor respondent with the Washington Examiner. There were a number of outbreaks during the summer break for congress, a number of outbreaks of the zika virus. What action did the Obama Administration take and what did we hear from lawmakers during the recess . The Obama Administration can fit more than 70 million to forting fund to the center Disease Control to combat the zika virus. In congress, the legislators are talking about whether or not to approve additional funding to pay for zika funding like vaccine and mosquito abatement. They have not reached an agreement. There is a bill about putting 1. 1 billion measure that is now sitting in the senate. The senate will consider when it returns. That is up for debate right now because a lot of democrats are opposed to this legislation because the money comes from other parts of the government. They wanted to be on the spending. Theres a big debate going on whether to approve it or make changes to the democrats are saying we need to make changes. Republicans are saying, lets approve the bill. Than 700 million is paid for. Worke senate gets right to on the street they take a vote on september the sixth when they come back. Thats a good funding is now included in a bill that includes Veterans Issues and also planned parenthood. How does the issue get resolved . Init is all grouped together military construction and Veterans Affairs legislation. That is a 82. 5 billion measure. It looks like it may stall again because democrats are opposed to the idea of transferring funding to pay for this. A big chunk of the funding would come from obamacare. Some healthcare exchanges that were never developed in u. S. Territories. I predict it will stall again. One. Ll be back to square we are entering a fall where mosquitoes will go away for the winter and this debate may simmer down without resolution. The debate over overall away. G will not go we have a deadline of september the 30th to get this continuing resolution passed. How does that shape up . Government funding expires. Someess has to take action. What is being discussed is passing legislation that would continue funding at the current levels and go on until either a lameduck session of congress or a new administration in january 2017. Those in the two possibilities. It is highly unlikely to pass the individual 12 appropriations measures by the end of september. They are too far behind on that. They will have to look at either a temporary funding measure or what we call some kind of bills tointo a few pass them together. We look towith us as another issue that cars will have to address. That is the programs for the defense department. Congress will have to address. That is the programs for the defense department. John mccain took the floor. A we are about to vote on couple of motions to instruct the conferees on the Defense Authorization bill and also on the defense appropriations bill to move forward. Are veryese votes vital to the future of this andon in a time of turmoil a time of the greatest number of refugees since the end of world war ii, threats throughout the world and attacks on the United States of america. Very ivan, a appropriately, his motion to instruct the conferees is for us to account for and authorized funding foruthorize the recent actions taken by the president of United States and secretary of defense. 8400 sailors, airmen and marines , for theghanistan european your insurance reassurance program, to fulfill a commitment that secretary carter made at the dialogue within the pacific theater, the list goes on and on. Every time we turn around, we hear of another increase in our military presence in after rack iraq and afghanistan. And buildups in Eastern Europe which was decided that a meeting of the nato nations. With all of these promises and commitments, we see no request for additional funding to take care of these new issues and new requirements for our military activities. Sullivanst senator motion is entirely in order. Theset make sense to have very large note multibilliondollar increase of requirements and announcing with great fanfare and never coming over once to request additional funding . That is disingenuous. I urge my colleagues support for colleagues support for the motion to insist that the final conference include authorization for the commitments that are described in the motion. The second is the issue that has has been ang us and subject of great discussion and debate and heartache on the floor of the senate and that is the issue of the Afghan Special immigration visas. Thatis heartbreaking members of the United States senate for their own parochial interests, just a couple, woodblock would block this legislation which calls for the ability of us to bring these people to the United States literally risk their lives on our behalf and allies are in danger as we speak. My colleagues dont have to take my word for it, i would like to say for example, the a