Afghanistan and elsewhere, and it reflects current best thinking and practices on interrogation. Moreover, the Army Field Manual embodies the values americans have embraced for generations. Preserving the ability of tower interrogators to extract critical intelligence from our adversaries while recognizing that torture and cruel treatment are ineffective interrogation methods. Some of the nations most respected leaders from the u. S. Military, c. I. A. , and f. B. I. Supported this legislation as well as numerous human rights organizations and faith groups, including the National Association of evangelicals and the United States conference of catholic bishops. General David Petraeus, a military leader that i admire more than literally any living military leader, general David Petraeus said he supported the use of the Army Field Manual because and i quote general David Petraeus our nation has paid a high price in recent decades for the information gained by the use of techniques beyond those in the field manual, and in my view, that price far outweighed the value of the information gained through the use of techniques beyond those in the manual. And obviously that includes waterboarding. Why dont we listen to people like general David Petraeus who has had vast experience in iraq and afghanistan with detainees and the information we have gotten from them and our practices. And if general petraeus were here, he would tell you that the most effective method of gaining information is establishing a friendly relationship with the detainee. Obviously we need intelligence to defeat our enemies, but we need reliable intelligence. Torture produces more misleading information than actionable intelligence. And that and what the advocates of harsh and cruel interrogation methods have never established is that we couldnt have gathered as good or more reliable intelligence from using humane methods. Most importantly, we got in the search for bin laden came from using conventional interrogation methods. I think its an insult to the many Intelligence Officers who have acquired good intelligence without hurting or degrading prisoners to assert we cant win this war on terrorism without such methods. Yes, we can, and we will. But in the end, tortures failure to serve its intended purpose isnt the main reason to oppose its use. Ive often said and will always maintain that this question isnt about our enemies. Its about us. Its about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. Its about how we represent ourselves to the world. We made our way in this often dangerous and cruel world not by just strictly pursuing our geopolitical interests, but by exemplifying our political values and influencing other nations to embrace them. When we fight to defend our security, we fight also for an idea that all men are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights. Thats all men and women. How much safer the world would be if all nations believed the same. How much more dangerous it can become when we forget it ourselves, even momentarily, as we learned from abu ghraib. Our enemies act without conscience. We must not. It isnt necessary, isnt even helpful for this strange and long war were fighting. Our nation needs a commander in chief that understands and affirms this basic truth. Our nation needs a commander in chief who will make clear to those who fight on our behalf that they are defending this sacred ideal and that sacrificing our National Honor and our respect for Human Dignity will make it harder, not easier, to prevail in this war. And our nation needs a commander in chief that reminds us that in the worst of times, either chaos or terror of war, when facing cruelty, suffering and loss, that we are always americans. Different, stronger and better than those who would destroy us. Mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer under the previous order, the senate the previous order, the senate uopec retweeted by cspan producer craig kaplan. Harry reid, House Minority leader nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, steve israel will discuss the budget and National Security issues with president obama later today it will take place at the white house. Republicans have already rejected a plan ahead of its release. More about the budget coming up at 1 p. M. Eastern as white house budget director Shaun Donovan and other Administration Officials plan to outline the president s fiscal year 2017 request live here on cspan2. Also live on cspan3 at 1 30 p. M. A review of the Defense Department budget. Presentations by each of the service branches. Yesterday representatives from the centers for Disease Control and prevention and the National Institutes of Health Updated reporters on the zika virus. Health and Human Services secretary Sylvia Burwell due to brief senators this afternoon during a closeddoor session. Good afternoon, everybody. Its nice to see you all. I hope you had a good weekend. I see we have some broncos paraphernalia in the crowd today. So congratulations on the big victory, guys. As many of you may have seen, prior to the big game last night, the president had a conversation with gayle king from cbs, and he noted that the administration will be putting forward today a legislative proposal to congress to fortify our efforts to combat the zika virus both overseas and here at home, and making sure were taking the necessary steps to protect the American People. So given the frequency with which we have discussed this issue over the last couple of weeks, joining me today at the podium are two of the u. S. Governments foremost experts on this issue, and they can describe to you both some of the risks associated with this Public Health issue, but also describe to you the steps the u. S. Government is taking to protect the American People. To my immediate right is dr. Anne schuchat from the centers for Disease Control, and to her right is dr. Tony fauci from the National Institutes of health. Both of them will make brief opening comments, and then theyll stick around for 15 minutes or so to take any questions that you have. Questions on other topics ill handle after they depart. Dr. Schuchat, do you want to go first . Thank you. Hello, everybody. As you know, last may, brazil reported the detection of the zika virus. This was the first recognition of this virus in the americas, even though weve known about the virus for more than since 1947. The virus causes a mild illness in most people. In fact, four out of five people have no symptoms at all. But last fall, brazil noticed an increase in an unusual birth defect called microcephaly. And we began to be concerned that this virus could potentially be associated with serious complications of pregnancy. Since that time, the virus has spread to a number of countries in the americas. Its also spread to u. S. Territories, including puerto rico, the u. S. Virgin islands, and american samoa. And we have had cases in travelers here in the United States. Cdc, the health and Human Services, and the entire u. S. Government is taking this very seriously. For the average american, this is not something that will change your daytoday life. But if you are pregnant, we have taken the unusual step of recommending that you avoid travel to areas where zika is spreading, or if you live in an area such as that or must travel, that you be very vigilant with applying mosquito repellant and taking steps to avoid mosquito bites. We are working 24 7 to understand this virus, to detect it where it is occurring, and to prevent its spread. This will not be easy because the mosquito that spreads zika virus is an aggressive daytime biter. It lives outside and inside the home, and it can be pretty hard to control it. You know, in the backyard, how hard it can be to control mosquitoes well, this is one of those mosquitoes thats quite difficult to control. That said, were working very aggressively with areas where the virus is spreading and areas where it may spread to make sure that theyre prepared and that we can help prevent serious complications of pregnancy at the same time we learn more about the risk in pregnancy and the best ways to reduce that risk. Were working with all of the states and local areas on surveillance, reporting. Weve made this disease nationally notifiable. Weve shipped out Laboratory Diagnostic tests so that states can recognize this. And weve issued a number of guidances, not just for travel but guidances for Health Care Workers so they know how to take care of women who may have been exposed to the virus, and how to counsel them about things like sex during pregnancy. So i think that we are working very hard to get the information that americans want, and to work with our partners around the world to understand this virus but also to control its spread and mitigate the harm that it may do. Im going to turn things over to dr. Fauci. Thank you, trembling. As part of the u. S. Government response to the sikh issue right now that we are experts in south america and the caribbean is the fundamental and clinical our medical Research Response to answer some of the questions that we dont know about ebola excuse me, about zika coming together thing on the like likef which is difficult with all countermeasures. Let me briefly describe five issues were doing. A lot of this is in collaboration with the cdc but much of it is done with our grantees and contractors. Versus Natural History. Understand better history of this infection not only in people who are infected without being pregnant but also the Natural History of pregnancy and the possible relationship to microcephaly. Thats an important part of the epidemiological approach to have a look at it. The second one is fundamental basic science and understanding about this virus, what weve learned over many years in studying other viruses, viruses like ebola, hiv. Theres viral biology, understand is anything different between this vibrant which seems to have originated and work its way across the pacific into south america. You look at the molecular fingerprint of that virus, is any different and doesnt relate at all to the disease we are seeing and what we are seeing as a possible connection with microcephaly. The other is factor control. This is done in close collaboration with the cdc. There are ways you control vectors. Then there is diagnostics which is really very critical. Reason is critical is that if someone is actively infected with zika you can to within a period of seven, eight, nine, 10 days because you can isolate, not isolate that you can detect the virus by molecular means. Once they clear the virus to determine how they been infected with zika or one of the other viruses thats very similar to zika, like dengue and westar and others, but particularly dengue because of dengue permeates south america, particularly pursue. We did get a very specific diagnostic to tell a woman particularly was pregnant, have you been infected with zika or not. Thats going to be important. We are working closely on the. Finally, theres the issue with the vaccine. Vaccines are very important. The good news is that zika is what we call a flavivirus, certain class of viruses. We have successfully develop vaccines against flavivirus like yellow finger, like dengue, a vaccine the bushes recently approved in brazil and mexico, and we are studying that right now. We have already started to develop a vaccine in the early stages and we can predict that we likely would be in phase one trial just determine if its safe and if it is at it is a good response, probably by the end of the summer i get that going by the end of this year. It looks like it is safe we will go to the next stage. Unlikely to have a vaccine thats widely available for a few years but we can get the initial steps. Again happy to answer any questions. Well stop there and then we will go around to scott, go ahead. Dr. Fauci, did you say right now once youve cleared the virus we are not able to tell if a pregnant woman has been infected or no, no. 123 the virus, the we determine if youve been exposed is by the antibody that youve made against the virus. There is an Antibody Test that is done by the cdc and a couple of Specialized Centers that can tell you if you been affected. Village elders because of the similarity between zika and Dengue Company across reacts. If you get a positive and you got to go to the next level of tests that would say specifically is that zika or is it Something Else. All of that takes time and highly specialized test. Will return to get, the cdc and unscom is a test that will tell you immediately where you infected and wasnt zika versus anything else. Is not a matter of a more precise antibody . Yes. It recognizes only the aspect of zika that isnt shared with dengue. And other researchers have found the active virus in urine and saliva, how do you think thats going to affect the spread from here on out . Since we wont have one available vaccine for possibly years, what do you think is going to be most effective method for stopping the spread . I think the most important thing to say is that we think the majority of zika infections are spread through bites from a mosquito. We are learning about other potential routes, and the sexual transmission was an update last week. At this point its too early to know whether the detection in urine or saliva is going to be important. I think right now focuses on protecting pregnant women and im trying to control the mosquito. I think thats really where we need to be focused. I did want to say more about the diagnostic tests, because we did last week update our guidance and suggest that women who had traveled to a zika affected areas were pregnant should be tested even if they have not had any symptoms. To make that possible we have been shipping large amounts of Antibody Tests out so that the state Health Departments can facilitate the testing. Itits important that we dont unlimited quantities right now. And as dr. Fauci said the test isnt perfect. While we are scaling up the availability of testing for pregnant women who have traveled to a zika transmitting area, we are also working on better test that would be more informative because of the tests we have right now are not as perfect as we would like. One extra comment on the issue with saliva and urine. We dont take anything for granted, and we take those kinds of things seriously. But if you want to put things into perspective, i was having a bit of a deja vu because i was standing in this room about 30 years ago when we were talking with hiv, when hiv was found into tears and in the saliva and in the urine, and the question was is going to be transmitted that way. We can tell you for sure which t just because its in the urine and in the saliva should not be presumed that that is going to be a Significant Court anyway i think transmitted. We are going to follow it carefully but we will make sure we dont make that presumption is that it now can be transmitted by saliva and urine. Dr. Fauci, the United StatesOlympic Committee said that athletes who are concerned about going to rio should have the option of staying home. What is your advice to olympic athletes that are concerned about the zika virus . Should they stay home and not impede . Its difficult to give advice to people who have devoted the last x number of years for training for the. I think thats a personal decision. What we can do is to just to give them the facts and evidencebased information. Dr. Schuchat already mentioned that as an infection, zika is generally a relatively mildcome in fact, consequential infection but the possibility that a very, very rare event of a deal to race and trumpet but as an effective it isnt safe. The issue were focusing on is the issue with pregnant women. Even under that if you follow the guidelines that already out by the cdc about pregnant women traveling and making sure that if, in fact, theyre pregnant or want to get pregnant that this was a consider putting it off, and men who go there and might come back to United States and might have a wife or a Sexual Partner is pregnant to be very careful that they dont transmit it. So those guidelines stay the way they are, and i think those are the things people should consider when theyre going to make their decision. I would like to ask you about the confirmation of the first sexual transmission of zika in the United States. Besides that, the white house is asking for 1. 8 billion to fund to focus on this. Can you, mr. Ernest, give us an idea of when this can be approved . Obviously the request that we have put forward is to request that weve made of congress for the kind of resources that would be beneficial in advancing efforts at dr. Schuchat and dr. Fauci have been talking about here. There was a reference to the limited supply of some diagnostics to confirm whether or not youve had the disease. Thats something that we could use Additional Resources to increase that supply. Theres been discussion about the development of a vaccine. We would like to put Additional Resources to the effort to se