Date: 2014-09-09
Speaker: SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Speaker. I am proud to be one of the sponsors of this bill. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. I want to thank my colleague. CHRIS GIBSON from New York. Here we are again. Just a month ago. my colleague Mr. GIBSON and I were working across the aisle to lower energy prices in the Hudson Valley. and here we are working again on an issue of tremendous importance to our region. I support the TickBorne Disease Research Accountability and Transparency Act. along with so many others. and I want to acknowledge Mr. GIBSONS leadership on this issue. I am proud we are working across the aisle. because Lyme disease is an epidemic in the Hudson Valley. and it is hurting our kids. our friends. and our families. It is happening everywhereon our playgrounds. in our backyards. at parks. picnics. and on trails in the woods. It is the invisible. silent disease that so many find themselves developingand far too many find out too late. It is now one of the most common and fastest growing infectious diseases in our country. Every year. there are hundreds of thousands of cases nationwide. with 96 percent of those cases in only 13 States. In New York. thousands of my neighbors in the Hudson Valley are suffering from Lyme disease every day. Four counties in the Hudson Valley. including Dutchess and Putnam Counties. have reported the highest rates of Lyme disease in the entire country. I hear about it everywhere I go. A man named Alex from Washingtonville told me he has been suffering from Lyme disease for over 35 years. I spoke with a man who has a treecutting business in Garrison. New York. He said he has got about 12 guys working for him. I said. How many have got Lyme disease? He said. Every single one. All of my guys have Lyme disease. he said. A member of my own staff spent a month this summer injecting himself with heavyduty antibiotics through a catheter that was put into his heart. A member of my own staff had to sit on a couch every day and inject antibiotics into his heart because of this disease. Thank God he caught it in time and will make a full recovery. I met a woman at an event in Poughkeepsie who came up to me with a cane. She couldnt be more than 30 years old. She was with her husband. She said: Our whole lives have been ruined by this disease. My husband and I were just starting our life together. We were going to have a family. We had big plans. and now all we do is deal with this chronic Lyme disease that I have. and I cant get better. There is a woman named Valerie from Westchester County who wrote to me and says: No one listens. I hope you will listen. Well. we are listening today. Valerie. and I urge my colleagues to listen and pass this critical bill. This bipartisan legislation makes a landmark investment in Lyme disease and other tickborne illnesses so that our friends and families in the Hudson Valley no longer have to suffer in silence. When folks are suffering. I guarantee you they arent thinking. Mr. Speaker. about partisan politics. There is no Republican or Democratic Lyme disease. and Americans expect us to work together. That is why I am proud we are doing so today. We can stand up. We can stand shouldertoshoulder and say the health of our communities is too important to wait. For neighbors like Alex. Valerie. the others I mentioned. and for so many others I have never met. I want you to know we are listening. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4701 because our constituents deserve a government that is working for them and that steps up to the plate when they need it most.