Democrats oppose the bill because it would block Planned Parenthood clinics in Zika-prone areas of Puerto Rico from receiving new funding to treat the disease and prevent it from spreading. Republican Senator Susan Collins of ME, on being asked whether she thought Planned Parenthood funding restrictions should be eliminated from Zika legislation, said: “That would be my preference”.
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Senators voted 52-46 in favor of the measure, but 60 votes were needed to advance it. The vote came as Congress returned from a seven-week vacation. “I have met with National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, and had ongoing conversations with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and others about their current efforts and upcoming needs”. An additional 2,686 were reported as travel-related transmissions.
Lee County Mosquito Control predicts Southwest Florida will be at risk without funding. The Democratic filibuster marks the third time party lawmakers have stood in the way of the GOP-authored bill. Tuesday’s vote highlighted the political impasse in an unusual election season.
But as Republicans could face questions about Trump’s presidential campaign, Democrats will be pressured to respond to continued concerns about the Clinton Foundation and its future should Hillary Clinton win the election. “It is time for governing and doing the right thing for Florida and the nation”. Congress is expected to take up a measure soon that would be the ideal vehicle: a stop-gap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown. “We simply can not afford to wait any longer”, he said to mostly empty chambers. “My message to both parties and both chambers for this month is simple and straight forward: Zika is not a game”, said Sen. Biden said. “An bad lot of people, an terrible lot of babies, an terrible lot of children being carried in the womb are going to end up in a very, very, very life-long serious situation where they’re fundamentally compromised”. Especially when the women start having fetuses that are either brought to full term or not, that have microcephaly.
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However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dismissed such claims that Republicans had ulterior motives by ensuring the bill contained language to restrict efforts by Planned Parenthood. “While babies die, pregnant women and communities suffer, adults worry about future long-term neurological risks from Zika, and USA service members and military bases are affected, Congress remains deadlocked in partisan politics”.
