Democratic leaders in the House and Senate called on Republicans to cancel next week’s Memorial Day recess in order to pass legislation to deal with the Zika virus, and vote on other issues, including President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination.
“You know, mosquitos are ravaging for the first time of the history of mosquitos, and they’ve been scourges for generations and generations,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said at a press event outside the Capitol. “But they’ve never, ever caused birth defects. They do now.”
Zika, which has been transmitted through mosquito bites, has been tied to birth defects in infants, and the Obama administration has warned that the virus could spread through mosquitos in the U.S. this summer.
“The Republican Congress is about for an almost two week recess,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said. “Republicans are leaving Washington, without having completed any of the urgent business before Congress.”
“On issue after issue, the American people are telling Republicans, do your job, but the Republicans refuse,” she said.
Democratic leaders and others said Congress should stay to appoint Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. They also said Congress needs to pass legislation on opioid abuse and to help Flint, Mich., deal with its lead water crisis.
The House and Senate have passed different bills to fight Zika. The House bill offers no new money, and instead would reprogram $622 million toward the effort. The Senate bill, in contrast, provides $1.1 billion in new funding, and GOP leaders have to figure out how to reconcile the two bills.
That work, however, won’t take place until after the recess. Both chambers return in the first full week of June.
