Major cities are getting some extra federal cash to fight Zika, one day after mosquitoes were confirmed to be carrying the disease in Florida.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is giving out $2.4 million to Chicago, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. None of the cities is experiencing a local Zika outbreak, but lawmakers have criticized the CDC for not moving federal funds fast enough.
More than 50 cases of local transmission of the virus have been found, all of which are in Florida. The majority of cases are in Miami.
The funding would be used to boost information gathering systems for rapidly detecting microcephaly, a birth defect linked to Zika.
The CDC said that as of Aug. 26, the agency has given out more than $193 million of earmarked Zika funding that was transferred from $585 million in Ebola funding by the White House in April.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, which is trying to make a vaccine, has spent $264 of the $374 million redirected for Zika. The rest of the $585 million went to other agencies such as the Department of Defense.
Republicans have criticized HHS for not spending enough of the redirected Ebola funding, but the CDC has responded that it takes time to get approval for specific allocations.
The funding moves come a few days before Congress returns from a seven-week recess on Sept. 6. Congress is expected to once again take up a $1.1 billion funding package to fight Zika, but objections from Democrats to key parts of the package remain intact.
On Friday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent another letter to the Obama administration seeking answers about unspent funds.
“Responding to Zika is critically important, and failing to respond to legitimate funding questions hurts the cause and the administration’s credibility,” he said.
