Democrats and public health officials lambasted Republicans Thursday for refusing to allocate Zika funding the way they want.
“There will be no Senate, but there will be plenty of mosquitoes,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on a call with Florida Democrats and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden.
Lawmakers are scheduled to convene for one more week before leaving town for an extended summer recess, leaving a short window of time for an agreement to be reached. House and Senate Republicans have agreed on a $1.1 billion Zika funding measure, but Democrats are blocking it because it’s less than the $1.9 billion President Obama requested.
Democrats also are taking issue with some additional provisions Republicans included in the bill, which would loosen Environmental Protection Agency restrictions and block the funds from going to Planned Parenthood clinics.
“They passed an outrageous bill with many poison pills,” said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla.
While just one in five people with Zika show symptoms, the virus causes a serous birth defect called microcephaly if pregnant women are infected. More than 1,100 people in the U.S., including 320 pregnant women, are infected.
Fourteen of the cases were sexually transmitted, while the rest are travel-related, Frieden said. There’s no evidence that any of the cases have been spread by mosquitoes in the country, but officials warn that could happen soon as mosquito season has arrived.
Republicans have argued that $1.1 billion is sufficient to address the crisis, as unspent money used to address the Ebola crisis is also available. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that the Senate will make another attempt to pass the GOP bill before leaving town.
“As I’ve said before, the Senate will revisit this important issue over the current work period,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We’ll give Democrats another opportunity to end their filibuster of funding that’s critical to controlling Zika.”
In April the White House diverted $589 million for response efforts, as Congress remained gridlocked over how much emergency funding to allocate, but so far has distributed just one-sixth of that amount, according to records obtained by Politico this week.
Public health officials say that without additional, emergency funding from Congress, efforts to develop Zika diagnostic tests and research a vaccine are stymied. The CDC has been redirecting existing allocations for anti-Zika efforts, but Frieden said the lack of new funding makes the response difficult.
“You can’t just push a button and send money out — that’s why rapid action is so important,” Frieden said. “It’s frankly difficult to navigate with so many unknowns, not knowing whether and when additional dollars will be available.”
