“Will Hurd fell in line with the Republican party and irresponsibly voted to tank a bipartisan Zika package. Further he misled his own constituents by feigning ignorance of his own votes when taken to task on this failure of leadership. Hurd continues to put Texans in danger by not allowing for a clean Zika funding bill to pass and this clearly political move is now harming other important public health programs in Texas,” said Jermaine House of the DCCC. “Instead of pretending not to understand the extreme riders that he voted for, Hurd should demand that Speaker Ryan call the Republican-led Congress back into session to deal with this crisis.”
by Mark Reagan
August 19, 2016
[…] In late June, Congressional Democrats voted down a $1.1 billion Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Zika Response Appropriations Act in the Senate that would have funded efforts to prevent the spread of the virus because Republicans added language that prohibited Planned Parenthood from using funding to provide contraceptives as part of that effort; oh, and the Republican-added language also sought to strip some $540 million of Affordable Care Act funding.
[…] Republicans also removed language added by Democrats that would have banned the Confederate battle flag from being raised in military cemeteries. Before that legislation made it to the Senate, Hurd was among those who voted for a conference report created by House and Senate Republicans that added the controversial language that’s wholly unrelated to Zika. President Barack Obama even told Republicans he’d have to veto the bill if it passed with such language. But when Hurd was asked about all of at that listening tour stop at the Helotes Dairy Queen, he either seemed as if he was unaware of the controversial language that tanked the Zika bill — language he voted for.
[…]”On that case, I would love to have someone explain to me what those riders are, because the next point they never do is say what are those riders that are so offensive that is preventing them from being engaged,” Hurd said in video obtained by Gallego’s campaign staff. “And I haven’t seen them, and, you know, if they are there, we should work to get this done, because it is the potential of being a serious national crisis.”
Is Hurd being coy? Does he really not understand how the political jockeying over Planned Parenthood and Obamacare tanked the Zika prevention bill? We reached out to Hurd’s campaign team for clarification, but have yet to hear back. We’ll update this post if we do.
[…] Gallego, meanwhile, accuses Hurd of not reading bills and amendments before voting on them. “Or, if he actually knew the Zika bill he voted for also cut health programs, restricted funding for women’s health, weakened clean water laws, and allowed the confederate flag to fly at U.S. military cemeteries, then he should just say so,” Gallego said in a statement.