The White House said Thursday that when Congress returns in September, officials would keep up pressure on congressional Republicans to pass bills funding two public health emergencies, and to pass President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
“First I would say, they left a day early, maybe they’ll come back a day early. There’s plenty of work to be done,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said when asked for the Obama administration’s priority list.
When asked to name the White House’s priorities, Earnest named funding to combat the Zika virus and opioid addiction, as well as overhauling the criminal justice system and ratifying the TPP, an agreement most still say has no chance of passage.
Congress rejected the White House request for $1.9 billion in new emergency spending to fight Zika. Instead, lawmakers approved a bill to repurpose nearly $600 million in existing funding to fight Zika, after which Republicans proposed repurposing another $1.1 billion.
But Democrats in the Senate prevented that second bill from moving in the upper chamber.
Republicans have said the administration has been slow to spend the money it already has available, but Earnest insisted that more money is needed immediately. “Public health officials … are not getting the support they need to do everything possible to fight the Zika virus,” he said.
Congress also didn’t allocate money for opioid addiction, Earnest said.
“There has been a lot of talk from Republicans about this being a priority, but we haven’t actually seen Republicans do anything significant when it comes to providing resources that are necessary to expand treatment options” to the addicted, Earnest said.
But Earnest said the White House wasn’t expecting much progress.
“I suspect it’s going to be a dysfunction battle if the first eight months of this year are any indication,” Earnest said when asked if he expected September to be a month of money battles.
He said Republicans promised “to get Congress moving again” if they controlled both houses. But they haven’t moved any budget bills to President Obama’s desk yet, Earnest said as an example of what he calls the Republicans’ failed leadership.
“Republicans can’t even work together among themselves to make progress on these priorities, so I don’t really know what September holds, but the pressure will certainly be on Republicans” to clear any major legislation, he said.
