The White House on Tuesday warned that President Obama would veto a House Republican proposal to provide funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus, in part because it uses unspent money in the Health and Human Services coffers, but also because it falls far short of the White House’s request for funding.
“[T]he administration objects to the bill’s use of previously appropriated funding as an offset,” the Office of Management and Budget’s statement of administration policy says. “Funding to fight the Zika virus should be treated as an emergency, the same as past public health emergencies such as the Ebola and H1N1 viruses, and should not be offset.”
Disagreements between Congress and the White House have stalled a federal response to the Zika crisis, which includes 785 confirmed cases in Puerto Rico and nearly 100 in Florida. President Obama wants $1.9 billion in new spending to address the problem, while Senate negotiators have agreed to a $1.1 billion emergency fund. House Republicans put forward a $622 million package that doesn’t add to the debt or deficit.
“This legislation will make dollars available to fight the disease now, prioritizing critical activities that must begin immediately, such as vaccine development and mosquito control,” House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said in a Monday statement on the legislation.
“The legislation funds these efforts in a responsible way, using existing resources — including excess funding left over from the Ebola outbreak — to pay for it.”
The Senate will vote on multiple versions of its Zika bill, including one that appropriates the $1.1. billion on an emergency basis and another that offsets the spending in other parts of the federal budget. Senators will also vote on the White House request, which has the support of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, and his Democratic counterpart Bill Nelson.
“The administration has been clear from the start: ait’s going to take $1.9 billion to stop the spread of this virus, not $1.1 billion,” Nelson said in support of his amendment.
