White House, Ryan spokesman in public fight over Zika

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said congressional Republicans’ complaints that the administration has not been specific enough in its request and unresponsive were unfounded. That prompted Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to email letters from key lawmakers to White House officials seeking more information during Earnest’s daily briefing with reporters.

A reporter challenged Earnest’s claim that the White House is cooperating with Congress on the issue by referencing those letters, which Andres mentioned over Twitter. Republicans have said the White House has been keeping Congress in the dark on what it wants to do with the money it’s requesting.

Earnest initially said, “I can’t speak to the individual letters” about whether they were answered, but insisted that the White House’s request was thorough.

“Maybe we can engage in a little information exchange,” Earnest told reporters. “I’m happy to give you a copy of our legislation if you want to pass that on to members of Congress and get them to act on it.”

When pressed on Republicans’ letters to the Office of Management and Budget, Health and Human Services and the State Department, Earnest quipped: “That’s great. Maybe they missed the memo; maybe they were sick on Feb. 22,” when the White House sent Congress its legislation. “Maybe you can answer the questions for them” as that correspondence was a detailed analysis of how the funds would be spent, Earnest said.

“They can hide behind a bunch of bureaucratic letters, or they can actually do their job that is necessary to protect the American people,” Earnest said.

When another question about the letters was asked, Earnest said the administration did reply.

“I am recently informed that the letters that the speaker’s office apparently distributed to all of you were responded to by the Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan on April 6,” Earnest said, promising to send it to reporters after the briefing. “Rather than writing letters, we would appreciate Republicans actually doing their job and passing legislation that has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with fighting Zika.”

But Andres replied again over Twitter by saying the April 6 letter was “basically a rehashed blog post” that didn’t answer the GOP’s questions: