Senate nears a deal on $1.1B to fight Zika
Bill faces fight in House as GOP opposes spending
WASHINGTON — Senate negotiators on Tuesday neared an agreement to provide at least $1.1 billion in emergency financing to combat the fast-spreading Zika virus, which public health officials say poses a serious, imminent threat in the United States.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, however, faces a challenge in figuring out how to package the deal so that it can win passage in the House, where hardline conservatives have repeatedly balked at new government spending.
President Barack Obama has requested $1.9 billion to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus, and some Senate Democrats appear to be holding out for the full amount, believing that Republicans will soon face insurmountable public pressure amid rising fears about the virus, which causes birth defects.
With congressional Republicans resisting, the administration this month deployed $589 million, including $510 million previously appropriated to fight Ebola. The additional $79 million was taken from other accounts used to fight epidemics and to stockpile vaccines.
‘We must do something’
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who is chairman of the appropriations subcommittee responsible for health programs, and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on that subcommittee, are leading the Senate talks.
Aides said that Blunt and Murray regard Zika as an emergency health threat that requires a swift expenditure of government resources, without the corresponding cuts to other programs that many conservative Republicans have said should be a nonnegotiable component of any new spending measure. Democrats noted that Congress had provided $5.4 billion in emergency legislation to fight Ebola in 2014, and that there was no requirement for offsets to reduce other federal spending.
Some Senate Republicans said they were prepared to act.
“More and more of us understand we need to do something to combat the virus,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on state and foreign operations, which has some jurisdiction over the effort to fight Zika internationally and could provide additional funds.
Nearly 400 American travelers have contracted the Zika virus, and public fears are rising as health officials warn that diseasecarrying mosquitoes will soon arrive in the United States.
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats sought to increase pressure on Republicans to act quickly.
“We must do something to confront this scourge that’s facing our country,” Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We have all seen the pictures of these babies with these small heads caused by a mosquito bite.”
With House Republicans insisting that they were still waiting for the White House to answer questions about the president’s request, House Democrats on Monday introduced their own bill, which would grant the full $1.9 billion.
‘Talked a good game’
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, RCalif., the House majority leader, maintained Tuesday that the best way to address Zika was through the regular appropriations process. But he said Republicans needed to know more about the Obama administration’s plans before they could move.
McCarthy pushed back against the idea that Republicans were waiting too long to act on a potentially serious health crisis, pointing to the $589 million the administration has already said it will devote to fighting Zika.
Democrats said Republicans were stalling.
“While the House majority wastes time and resources with sham political ‘investigations,’ a public health crisis is spreading at home and abroad,” Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
“The majority has talked a good game about responding to the Zika virus, but all the hot air in the world does not deliver the vaccines, diagnostics, and mosquito control that is needed now to protect American communities,” Lowey added.