The Obama administration will use more than $500 million in leftover Ebola funding to fight the Zika virus, but urged Congress to approve more.
Obama in February requested $1.8 billion in emergency funding for fighting Zika, but Congress has largely balked at that request. Several Republican lawmakers had said that the administration should look into using the leftover Ebola funds.
So with Congress not acting on the request, the administration decided to allocate $589 million to fight the outbreak. About $510 million of that is from Ebola funding, according to Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget.
“These repurposed funds are not enough to support a comprehensive response,” he said on a call with reporters.
The remaining $79 million comes from other prevention funds, administration officials said.
Donovan said the full supplemental request needs to be approved or else activities will be “delayed, curtailed or stopped within months.” The funding is also needed to replenish the $510 million in Ebola funds to be used.
Such activities include mosquito surveillance and efforts to get a vaccine on the market by 2017, said Sylvia Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2014, Congress approved $5 billion in emergency funds to fight the Ebola outbreak, which had a small number of cases in the U.S. but was mainly centered in West Africa.
Administration officials have responded that the Ebola funds are largely spent. Remaining funds are already committed to about 17 African and Asian countries to boost their healthcare systems to help fight future outbreaks.
More than 312 cases of Zika have been found in the U.S. as of March 30, but almost all are people who recently traveled to an area where the virus is spreading via mosquito bites.
Zika has not spread via mosquito in the U.S. yet, but HHS is worried that can change as the summer approaches.
A recent study estimated that as many as 50 cities could have a Zika outbreak this summer, with cities in warmer, humid climates such as Miami and Houston the most vulnerable.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that more money is needed to give to states to improve their mosquito control programs. CDC officials recently said they had to divert about $2 million in state emergency grants to help the growing outbreak in Puerto Rico, where more than 300 people have caught the virus through mosquitoes.
GOP lawmakers largely applauded Obama’s funding decision. Rep. Verne Buchanan, R-Fla., said the funding was welcome and he is open to exploring additional funding if needed.
However, Buchanan believes “the first action should be to use money already available,” spokeswoman Gretchen Andersen told the Washington Examiner.
The House Appropriations Committee, which also called for the use of existing funds, was “pleased to hear today that federal agencies are heeding our call,” the committee said. The panel added that it will monitor Zika and “assure the resources necessary for the response are available.”
Zika causes a mild illness, but officials increasingly believe it causes a birth defect called microcephaly and a rare neurological disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
