President Obama ratcheted up his call on Friday for more funding to prepare for the Zika virus, and warned that mosquitoes carrying Zika already exist in the continental United States.
“As all you of know, there has been an enormous spread of Zika through Latin America, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. We have not yet seen cases that were transmitted on the continental United States, but we do know that the mosquitos carrying the Zika virus exist on the continental United States,” Obama told reporters in the Oval Office Friday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and several other top government health officials had just briefed him on the government’s response to the virus.
“It is absolutely critical for the United States government working in concert with other governments in the hemisphere to be pushing hard right now to get this situation under control,” Obama said.
The president underscored the need for U.S. citizens to abide by the government-issued guidelines and travel precautions, and once again urged Congress to provide more funding to combat the virus, which he said could help the government develop a vaccine for Zika.
“This is actually something that we could reduce the risks if Congress does the right thing and allocates the dollars that are needed right now to get it done,” Obama said. “The problem right now is the money is stuck in Congress and we have not seen the House and the Senate come together in a sensible [way] to put forward the dollars that we have requested that have been budgeted to get the job done.”
Providing funding to combat the Zika virus is a “basic responsibility” of Congress, he said.
“I expect Congress to get this funding done before they leave for vacation, before they adjourn,” he said, referring to the July 4 recess week that has already started.
