The need to fund the government past September might force Congress to agree on emergency Zika funding, weeks after the virus started spreading by mosquitoes in the U.S.
House Republicans are considering attaching a bill funding Zika efforts to a continuing resolution funding the government, among other potential venues. But whatever approach they choose, it’s not clear how they and Democrats might bridge a deep divide over whether to give eight Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico additional money and how to offset the measure.
In a memo sent Wednesday to House Republicans, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said they will deliberate a “path forward” for a $1.1 billion Zika spending bill that Senate Democrats have filibustered. Congress returns next week from its summer recess.
“Once we return, conference discussions will continue on overall government funding, including a continuing resolution and a path forward for the $1.1 billion supplemental funding package to address the Zika crisis,” McCarthy’s memo said.
More than 2,500 cases of Zika have been reported in the U.S., 29 of them transmitted through mosquitoes in Florida. The virus typically brings only mild symptoms, but can cause a severe birth defect called microcephaly if pregnant women are infected.
Public health officials spent the summer asking Congress to approve more funding so they can move ahead fully with efforts to develop a Zika vaccine and provide localities with more funds to kill mosquitoes.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said Tuesday that his agency has spent $194 million of $222 million it had allocated to fight the virus, prompting calls from Democrats for Congress to approve a funding bill this month.
“When Congress reconvenes next week, it is critical that the Republican leadership act swiftly to pass the Senate’s bipartisan Zika funding bill, which provides $1.1 billion in emergency resources to fight the Zika virus and contains no poison pills,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.
Democrats want the Zika bill to include additional revenue for Planned Parenthood’s single clinic in Puerto Rico, where more than 8,500 people have been infected, almost all from mosquitoes. The Republican-written bill says the emergency funds can go only to public health departments, which would exclude the nonprofit women’s health and abortion provider, although the bill doesn’t mention Planned Parenthood by name.
Senate Democrats said they filibustered the Zika bill over that issue, and a Senate leadership spokesman told the Washington Examiner Wednesday that the bill is still a no-go as is.
“Anything containing a Planned Parenthood ban will not have the votes to pass in the Senate,” the aide said.
More conservative members of the House have expressed skepticism that emergency funding is as necessary as the Obama administration says, with some members criticizing the CDC for not spending its existing allocations faster.
A memo this week from the Republican Study Committee referred to the administration’s “slow rate of obligating already available funds.” It suggested additional funds could be included in a continuing resolution through special exemptions called “anomalies,” which allow spending above previous levels.
