New warnings about the risks associated with the Zika virus have increased pressure on Congress to appropriate new federal money to fight the outbreak, but Republicans say the White House still hasn’t provided enough details to Congress on how it wants to spend the $1.9 billion it’s requesting.
GOP lawmakers said Wednesday they remain unwilling to provide $1.9 billion to combat Zika, a mosquito-borne illness linked to severe birth defects and brain injury. But lawmakers said they might consider a supplemental spending measure for Zika if the White House would give them more information.
“We are trying to get the administration to tell us, precisely, what amount of money they need and for what purpose. And we simply can’t get that information,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said Wednesday.
Appropriators are awaiting responses to letters sent March 7 by GOP lawmakers to the Office of Management and Budget as well as the departments of State and Health and Human Services, which outline specific questions about the Zika funding request.
President Obama requested the money to combat Zika in February and has repeatedly called on the GOP-led Congress approve the funding.
When provided with Rogers’ comments, a White House aide told the Washington Examiner that the administration had provided “a pretty detailed summary of what would be included in the president’s request,” in an 18-page letter sent on Feb. 22:
But lawmakers say it lacked key information.
“The request they have given us is merely an outline, without the proper budget documents, language and justifications,” a GOP House Appropriations Committee aide told the Examiner.
The White House stepped up its funding request again this week after the Centers for Disease Control said the virus is “a bit scarier than we initially thought,” and had the power to cause physical harm beyond microcephaly in newborns. The CDC announced late Wednesday afternoon that the virus does cause birth defects.
“For the last two months, Congress has frittered away the opportunity to ensure that we’re doing all that we possibly can to protect the American people from a virus that, for most people is not dangerous, but for pregnant women and newborn children, could be incredibly dangerous,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.
Republicans and the White House reached a smaller compromise this week when Obama agreed to sign a House-passed bill that would provide incentives to private companies to find a Zika vaccine. The bill includes no new funding, however, and Earnest called it “a rather meager accomplishment” that won’t go far enough to fight the disease.
The White House has agreed to fight the Zika virus with a half-billion dollars leftover in an existing fund created to combat the Ebola virus. Republicans have been arguing that the administration should use its leftover Ebola funding for the Zika outbreak.
Rogers said he wants to know why the $500 million isn’t enough.
“I can’t understand why they don’t give us the information,” Rogers said. “We are trying to be helpful and want to help. We simply don’t have the info.”
Republicans typically resist supplemental federal funding. Congress this year blocked requests from Democrats for additional federal funding to help Flint, Mich., recover from a lead water crisis.
But even Republican lawmakers from Florida, which has reported more cases of Zika than any other state, say new federal funding is not needed to combat the virus.
“We do an excellent job of controlling the infestation,” Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said, noting that transmissions there have been human to human, and not via mosquito bite.
“There is money available,” Mica added. “There has been more than enough money available. It’s ready, it doesn’t have to be appropriated. Why do more?”
CDC officials are concerned that the Zika outbreak will spread via mosquito bites this summer, when the weather turns hot and humid, especially in southern states.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Wednesday praised the administration for using the existing Ebola funding to deal with Zika. Any new funding, Ryan said, would be considered during the fiscal 2017 spending debates, “if the need arises.”
But Rogers wouldn’t rule out a supplemental spending bill this year.
“We are prepared to try to do a supplemental bill if it is needed,” Rogers said.”But, we can’t decide what is needed or not because we can’t get the information from the agencies as to what they need it for.”
Read Rogers’ March letter asking for more information here:
But lawmakers say it lacked |
