It’s Congress’ own fault if lawmakers still don’t understand the Obama administration’s plan to combat the Zika virus, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Tuesday.
Earnest told reporters Tuesday that administration officials, including a cabinet member and department heads, have appeared 48 times before congressional panels or at Capitol Hill briefings to answer questions about the plan, and said lawmakers apparently did not take advantage of those opportunities.
“[If] there are any unanswered questions about the strategy that the administration has put forward … I think it’s members of Congress themselves who are responsible for not having an answer to those questions because they’ve had ample opportunity to ask them,” Earnest said after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., complained that his colleagues still have questions pending with the administration.
Earnest also suggested that a list of Zika questions posted on Republican websites might not be as old as Republicans claim.
“I wouldn’t put it past some Republican that I’ve never heard of, you know, producing a detailed list of questions that they say has been, you know, residing on their website for a couple of weeks,” Earnest theorized.
“So, I think my point is: Send the questions over. We’ll take a look,” he offered. “But there’s no excuse for them having those unanswered questions when you consider that we’ve already put forward a detailed legislative proposal more than two months ago now.”
Earnest also said that still having questions should not prevent lawmakers from authorizing emergency funds government health officials said they need to combat and respond to cases of the mosquito-born virus.
“[I]gnorance is not an excuse. They’ve had opportunities to ask their questions,” Earnest said. “This is an emergency,” but instead of passing legislation, “we’ve gotten bureaucratic excuses from Congress about why they’ve done nothing.”
“And right now, they haven’t paid a significant price for that,” he continued. “But at some point, there are going to be direct, specific, serious questions asked to members of Congress, particularly Republicans, about why they haven’t done anything.”
