Date: 2016-05-24
Speaker: RODNEY DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Illinois

Madam Speaker. I want to thank my good friend. Chairman GIBBS. for his effort in putting this commonsense legislation forward. Madam Speaker. we all come here to this House floor. and we work together in a bipartisan way to address many important issues that affect Americans. We have worked closely together with many of our colleagues on the other side of the floor today to help our veterans. to help rebuild our roads and our infrastructure. and I do believe we can work together to stop the spread of the Zika virus. This is a commonsense piece of legislation that isnt asking to get rid of EPA rules and regulations. It is asking to simply suspend them during this crisis period. I want to tell you why. My colleague. Mr. GIBBS. mentioned earlier that this is the result of a court case that. in 2006. actually created a duplicative and costly regulatory process that many of our small communities and small businesses are still trying to fight when they are dealing with spraying for mosquitoes. Now. mosquito abatement has changed a lot since I was younger. I can remember my parents and my friends parents sending us out to ride our bikes behind the fogger. We wouldnt do that anymore now. would we. Madam Speaker? Because we now see more rules and regulations. FIFRA. the policies that have been enacted by the EPA have shown that maybe that is not the smart thing to do. We have processes in place. The very same agency that tells us what is safe and what is not when looking at spraying for mosquitoes that may or may not carry diseases like West Nile and Zika. how to safely use them. but the same agency has put together a process for Illinois. a 35page document showing us how to get a permit to spray for mosquitoes if you are a small business. if you are a small community. and these 35 pages. these regulatory requirements. we are asking to suspend so we can deal with the Zika virus that we now know is mosquito borne. This 35page permit had 6 entire pages dedicated to definitions and acronyms. Section 7. the recordkeeping portion alone includes three separate levels of recordkeeping. depending on the size of the annual treatment area. and it does it in there as some permittees are also subject to annual reporting requirements as well. Madam Speaker. the farmers in my district are spending too much time to try to abate this disease on their own to help so many in our communities. and I am afraid they may say: Enough. Lets figure out how someone else is going to do it. That doesnt help us solve the problem of eradicating the Zika virus. That is the reason why this bill that will suspend this process is so necessary right now. I would urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to take a look at this commonsense approach and do what Mr. GIBBS is doing. Lets work together. Lets ensure that we can stop a permit process like this to deal with something so important to so many families. Unfortunately. the longer we talk in this institution. Madam Speaker. the less is done to stop the spread of the Zika virus in this country. in our States. and in our districts. Madam Speaker. I thank Chairman GIBBS for this commonsense piece of legislation.