Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed on Wednesday to US$1.1 billion in new funding to fight the Zika virus, a key House Republican lawmaker said.
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One of the provisions opposed by Democrats blocks supplemental funds in the measure from going to Planned Parenthood for birth control services for women at risk of becoming infected with the virus. United States President Barack Obama called for $1.9 billion in funding, but Republicans approved far less than the president’s request.
Funding shortfalls will limit birth control for women that are hoping to prevent the Zika virus.
“Republicans’ promises of a constructive and inclusive appropriations process ring hollow”, said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Last month, the Senate passed a $1.1 billion plan that did not cut spending elsewhere, while the House passed a $622 million bill that was fully offset with spending cuts.
“With this additional funding – on top of what we have already allocated – the administration will continue to have the needed resources to address the Zika threat”, Ryan said.
The House Rules Committee cleared the spending bill minutes earlier in a late-night session while the day-long protest by Democrats was still raging on.
The bill would cut $543 million in unused funds from the implementation of Obamacare, $107 million from leftover funds used to fight Ebola, and $100 million in administrative funds from the Health and Human Services Department.
The vote came after Democrats hijacked the House floor for virtually all of Wednesday and well into Thursday, protesting GOP inaction on gun legislation in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando.
More than 2,200 cases of Zika infection have been reported in the US and its territories, especially Puerto Rico- including more than 400 pregnant women at risk of babies with major deformities like microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with smaller brains that might not have developed properly. When Congress failed to act, he transferred more than $500 million in unspent Ebola funding to develop a vaccine, research better tests to detect Zika, help states and localities battle the mosquitoes that spread it, and help foreign countries mount their own defenses against the virus.
Democrats also said it was wrong to require spending cuts to pay for a response to a public health crisis while not requiring them for past emergencies such as wildfires, floods and Ebola. “Republicans are so controlled by their hard right that they are incapable of working with Democrats to solve a public health crisis and actually govern the country”. White House spokesman Eric Schultz says it doesn’t appear the bill will pass the Senate, but that if it does, Obama will veto it.
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The measure – and the looming partisan battle over it – comes as a deadline to pass the Zika funding into law grows near. GOP leaders called the vote abruptly, permitting no debate, and immediately adjourned the House through July 4. But it would not permit the use of donor eggs and sperm to help veterans with the most severe injuries to their sexual organs have children.
