As summer nears, Senate set to OK Zika funding

WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to approve more than $1 billion in new funding to help fight the spread of the Zika virus.

Senators will have the opportunity to vote on three funding options, including a popular bipartisan compromise that would provide $1.1 billion, as amendments to a broader spending bill that is expected to pass later this week. The vote comes amid growing concern that the virus could spread rapidly as the mosquito population grows this summer. Zika has been linked to birth defects and health issues across Latin America and the Caribbean.

There is broad bipartisan support for the $1.1 billion compromise package, but lawmakers will also have the opportunity to vote on an option that would fully fund the White House’s $1.9 billion request and a separate GOP-backed proposal that would use $1.2 billion in cuts to an Affordable Care Act program to offset the cost of $1.1 billion in new Zika spending.

The funding package and the underlying spending bill are expected to easily pass the Senate, but prospects for passing the legislation through the House are dim.

On Monday, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., introduced legislation to provide $622.1 million to battle Zika over the next five months. The package redirects money left over from battling the Ebola virus and other programs run by the Department of Health and Human Services to a Zika fund.

Rogers said his proposal would be available immediately, but does not provide funding for the following year. Rogers and other GOP leaders have not ruled out additional funding but said they want the administration to first provide an exact accounting of how it plans to use any new funds.

“Given the severity of the Zika crisis and the global health threat, we cannot afford to wait on the Administration any longer,” Rogers said in a statement. “We have made

our own funding determinations, using what information is available and through discussions with federal agencies, to craft a proposal to fight the spread of this damaging disease.”

House Democrats rejected the proposal.

“The Republican majority’s response is completely insufficient given the severity of the public health emergency facing the Western Hemisphere,” said New York Rep. Nita Lowey, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.