Democrats in the House want to spend more to fight Ebola, while the chamber’s Republicans want to impose a travel ban to fight the disease.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday the House Appropriations Committee should “return to Washington immediately,” and convene hearings on spending levels for key government health agencies, “in light of the public health challenges posed by the Ebola virus.”
Pelosi’s demand followed a House Energy and Commerce hearing on the government response to Ebola, which killed a Liberian national in Dallas and sickened to nurses.
Republicans told reporters after the hearing they are calling on Obama to institute a travel ban for people originating from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where Ebola has spread.
“Right now, we are placing this upon the White House desk, and we are asking the president to institute a travel ban,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said. “Let’s see what the president says.”
The Obama administration has resisted calls for a travel ban and on Thursday, Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden said such a ban could make it harder to control an outbreak in the United States.
But he wouldn’t rule it out.
“We will consider any options to better protect Americans,” Frieden told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
House Democrats on the panel pointed to instances where Congress cut funding for the CDC and National Institutes of Health, where one of the nurses stricken with Ebola is getting treatment in a special biocontainment unit.
The CDC received a funding boost of more than $500 million this year, for a total budget of $6.9 billion. The NIH operates under a budget of more than $30 billion.
Democrats have complained that the two health agencies should be awarded greater funding increases to deal with the new threat of Ebola and other infectious diseases, which are expensive to treat.
“If we are going to protect the American people and our healthcare workers who are our first line of defense, we must recognize the importance of our investments in biomedical research and prevention, and act to reverse this slide,” Pelosi said.
