President Obama will help Florida fight virus-carrying mosquitos and handle Zika outbreaks, even if Congress isn’t, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday.
Obama called Florida Gov. Rick Scott Wednesday evening “to assure him that the U.S. government stands ready to offer as much assistance as we possibly can to the state of Florida as they deal with — not just this one particular outbreak of the virus, but to ensure … that we can mobilize resources to help them respond if there are other outbreaks,” Earnest said.
However, the federal government “does not have all the resources available that we would like to use to assist state and local authorities because Congress hasn’t acted on the request that President Obama put forward five months ago now,” Earnest added.
“This was a request that was essentially written by public health professionals that outlined all of the things that they need to do everything possible to protect the country from the Zika virus.”
Obama himself needled Republicans for adjourning for a seven-week recess without signing off on additional funding to fight the mosquitos that carry Zika, and take other steps to contain the virus.
“And here I do have to add just a little editorial,” Obama said during a speech about international development on Wednesday. “Republicans in Congress can help: Pass that bill that treats Zika like the serious threat it is, and fully funding our response.
“That is an example of protecting America and helping other countries too,” he continued. “We can get that done.”
Scott, a Republican, also complained Wednesday about congressional inaction and opened up the state’s coffers to address the disease before Obama called him.
“The president recognized Florida’s strong record of responding aggressively to local outbreaks of mosquito-borne viruses like Zika, and offered federal support and technical assistance for Florida’s ongoing case investigation and mosquito-control efforts,” the White House stated in a summary of their call Wednesday evening.
Obama told Scott he expected the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to award Florida $5.6 million on top of the $2 million already earmarked for the Sunshine State. On Thursday, the CDC announced state grants totaling $60 million.
The $500 million originally approved for Ebola that Congress authorized federal agencies to shift to Zika is not enough, Earnest said.
“There are also aspects of the response that are being led by public health professionals that are not operating at full capacity because of the lack of the congressional response,” Earnest said. For example, there are insufficient funds to speed up lab results or make testing for the virus more widely available, he said.
“[P]resumably, Gov. Scott or other governors would say, ‘Boy, there’s more help that we would like to have in terms of hiring more people, and getting more quickly to help us fight mosquitoes,'” Earnest theorized. “But the federal government can’t do as much as we would like to do to help those states, again, because Congress hasn’t acted.”
Republicans maintain that federal health agencies do not need the $1.9 billion the Obama administration seeks because they have not yet exhausted the Ebola money. As Congress left, only about $100 million of the $590 million Congress allowed to be shifted had been spent, and Republicans urged the White House to quickly use the money it had available.
Republicans also blamed Democrats for scuttling a last-minute Zika bill by demanding that the $1.1 billion in funding come from more borrowing, instead of shifting funds that have already been approved.
