Republican appropriators urged President Obama on Thursday to start spending the hundreds of millions of dollars available to fight the Zika virus, now that Democrats have twice blocked a Senate bill that would have made even more money available.
“If Senate Democrats continue to block consideration of Zika legislation, we urge you to aggressively use funds already available to mount a strong defense against the virus,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and other House and Senate GOP appropriators wrote to Obama. “We also note that the fiscal year 2016 appropriations bills allow the administration access to additional funds.”
Democrats on Thursday blocked for a second time a bill that would have provided $1.1 billion to fight Zika, a mosquito-transmitted disease that causes birth defects and neurological problems.
Democrats oppose offsets in bill, which come from Obamacare and other health funds. They also want the GOP to remove a provision blocking new funding from reaching a handful of Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico.
Democrats have been trying to shift the blame to the GOP, arguing that Republicans should sit down with them and write a new bill more to their liking.
“It is unfortunate that Democrats have blocked action on this legislation in the Senate,” Republicans wrote to Obama. “The conference report provides the same amount of funding that every Senate Democrat previously supported. It fully funds vaccine research, and increases funding for mosquito spraying and eradication, Zika surveillance, and advanced development of treatments and diagnostics.”
“The conference agreement provides the same access to health services as your supplemental request, contains no new prohibition on any health service, and expands access to health services in Puerto Rico beyond your initial request,” they added.
The federal government has only spent about $100 million out of a pot of $560 million allocated earlier this year to Zika control.
“We urge you to use available funding now to ensure our nation is prepared,” appropriators wrote to Obama.
