The Senate this week will take up a short-term government funding bill with money to battle Zika, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday.
McConnell, R-Ky., made the announcement an hour before he will meet with President Obama and top congressional Democrats at the White House. The two parties and the Obama administration have been working since last week on a deal.
“We have made a lot of important progress already,” McConnell said.
McConnell said the spending bill would last until Dec. 9 and would fund the government at fiscal 2016 levels but would also include fiscal 2017 funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the Senate floor following McConnell and acknowledged bipartisan talks are moving along.
According to GOP aides, the Senate deal is expected to adjust the language in the bill so that Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics in Puerto Rico are no longer excluded from receiving Zika funding. That language in the bill Republicans have raised twice has been part of the reason why Democrats have opposed that bill.
Still, Reid indicated it was still unclear whether Democrats could support the version described by McConnell.
“I’m not going to lay down any markers here today because we are still trying to work something out,” Reid said. He warned the GOP “to get away from their vendetta against Planned Parenthood.”
