The publication is reproduced in full below:
PREVENTING FUTURE PANDEMICS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss what we must do to prevent the next pandemic and why it is not only a global health issue, but also an environmental one.
The origins of the pandemic we are battling now are clear: unsanitary, unsafe wildlife markets.
These markets, which are prevalent in some areas of Asia and Africa, but are present everywhere, including in the United States, are fed by trade in wildlife; some of it legal; some of it illegal; all of it very dangerous.
They are breeding grounds for a strain of viruses known as zoonotics, which are diseases born from the unnatural intermingling of the bodily fluids of different species in an unsafe and unsanitary market that sold wildlife, living and dead, for human consumption.
Other zoonotics include SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, swine flu, bird flu, HIV/AIDS, and now COVID. COVID-19 has truly opened the world's eyes to the danger of these markets and the global impact, and it should open our eyes to just how urgent the need for legislation around this is in order to prevent the loss of millions of lives.
That is why over the course of the last year I wrote the Preventing Future Pandemics Act along with my friend, Mr. Fred Upton, and Senators Cory Booker and John Cornyn in the Senate. We may not agree on much, but we agree on this: We have the power to prevent the next pandemic, and to do nothing would be an act of negligence.
A vital lesson that we need to learn from COVID is that we must fundamentally change the way that we interact with wildlife globally if we want to stop this from happening again. This means stopping deforestation and other habitat destruction, slowing and ending global climate change, and global shutdown of live wildlife markets.
Already we have seen how changes in temperature and weather patterns and encroaching human development have brought people and wildlife into more frequent and more intimate contact. Human consumption of wildlife is simply the most dangerous form of that contact.
To get at the root of this problem, the Preventing Future Pandemics Act would establish the official foreign policy of the U.S. to be that we would work with other countries to shut down these markets, end the trade in terrestrial wildlife for human consumption, and build international coalitions to reduce the demand for wildlife as food.
The bill would authorize funding for USAID to work on reducing demand for consumption of wildlife from wildlife markets, and support shifts to alternate sources of food and protein in communities that rely upon this consumption for food security.
Moreover, to truly lead by example, this bill would end the import and export of wildlife for human consumption in and out of the United States.
While wildlife is not a major source of protein in our country, these markets do exist here, and they still pose a danger. If we are to establish and maintain a position of international leadership on this issue, we must practice what we preach.
This bill will help us take significant steps to break down the silos between global health and conservation, because we know unequivocally that if we try to treat these as separate problems, we fail to solve either problem.
After the economic and social devastation of the past year, and the way that COVID-19 has upended all of our lives, it is my view that the Preventing Future Pandemics Act is a national security bill, a conservation bill, an animal wildlife bill, a small business bill, a travel industry bill, a manufacturing bill, a retail bill, a mental health bill, a housing bill, and a public transit bill. It is a bill to protect our lives and livelihoods from the threat of human consumption of wildlife and the associated wildlife trade.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to rally around this in order to potentially save the world from suffering the consequences of inaction and standing by hopelessly as we watch another pandemic ravage our world.
The next pandemic can be stopped, and the Preventing Future Pandemics Act is a vital first step. Let's do it together.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 87
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
House Representatives' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
Alerts Sign-up