Democrats on Friday called on the Republican-led Congress to abandon the summer break and return to Washington to pass a bill to fight the Zika virus, now that Florida has said it believes people are at risk of contracting the virus from mosquitoes inside the United States.
“House and Senate must return to Washington immediately to provide the Zika funding public health officials need to protect Americans,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid tweeted. The Nevada Democrat also said Americans “can’t wait” until lawmakers return in September.
Zika is public health emergency that requires immediate bipartisan action. Americans can’t afford to wait until Congress’ vacation is over.
— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) July 29, 2016
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., added that Congress must return to deal with the virus, which has been linked to birth defects.
“Congress breaking for a historic summer recess without doing its job to protect Americans from Zika is incomprehensible and unconscionable,” he said. “President Obama requested emergency funding in response to this crisis more than five months ago — Congress’ failure to take action before now is reprehensible and irresponsible.”
But there seems little chance of Congress returning, especially since Republicans are blaming Democrats in the Senate for blocking legislation twice that would have made more funding available. That bill would have repurposed another $1.1 billion to fight Zika, but from existing funds, and not through new emergency spending as Democrats were demanding.
A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan indicated that Republicans are skeptical of the Democrats’ call to return to work given that Democrats in the Senate blocked that bill.
“We wonder if Senator Reid’s comment suggests Senate Democrats are ready to end their filibuster of the House-passed $1.1 billion package to fight Zika,” AshLee Strong said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “While the House acted responsibly to pass additional Zika resources before the recess, it’s important to note that the White House has admitted most of the over $500 million already set aside hasn’t been spent.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in her own statement that Democrats want to pass the bill providing emergency funding, not the GOP bill to repurpose existing funds.
“The Republican Leadership should immediately reconvene the Congress to pass the bipartisan Zika funding bill that passed the Senate by a vote of 89 to 8 on May 19 – a bill that provides $1.1 billion in emergency resources to fight the Zika virus with no poison pills,” she said. “There is no time to waste.”
Republicans were also pointing out before the break that the Obama administration still has money available through prior legislation. Of the $589 million, only about $112 million had been doled out.
That had Republicans arguing before they left that Obama should start spending the money it already has, instead of asking for additional funds.
“[W]e 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.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it expects most of the $589 million will be allocated by August, after which more funding will need to be authorized.
