A Florida Republican is asking House and Senate leaders to ensure a Zika funding bill is passed first thing next week.
“Congress must put aside partisan differences and come together immediately to protect the public,” Rep. Vern Buchanan wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
Buchanan is among a number of Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio, who have been urging Congress to finally agree on Zika funding bill. The virus has infected more than 2,500 people in the U.S., including around 30 people in Florida infected through mosquito transmission.
Ryan is holding a Republican conference meeting next Wednesday, after members return from the summer recess. There’s talk of attaching a Zika funding measure to a bill funding the government, among other options, but it’s unclear what course leaders will pursue.
Republicans have largely been skeptical that the government needs the $1.9 billion President Obama requested for responding to the outbreak, but Buchanan is one of the few members of his party supporting that level of funding. Cases of Zika have been reported in two counties he represents: Manatee and Sarasota County.
“As one of the first Republicans in Congress to support President Obama’s call for $1.9 billion in emergency funding, I was enormously disappointed by congressional inaction in July,” Buchanan wrote. “The time to address this national health crisis is long overdue.”
The House has passed a $1.1 billion Zika funding bill, but Senate Democrats said they filibustered it because it didn’t provide additional funding to eight Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico. Democrats also demanded emergency spending that is not offset, while Republicans pushed a bill that mostly repurposed existing federal funds.
