US senators, returning from a seven-week break, failed to approve a spending bill that includes $1.1 billion to pay for a federal response to the Zika virus. The vote was 52 to 46, and Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill.
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“It was an agreed upon issue between the House and Senate and, unfortunately, the Senate Democrats blocked it”, Sen. They cut funding for the Veteran’s Administration by half a billion.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he is in talks with Senate Democrats and the White House to bring to the floor next week a stopgap funding measure to keep the government open past the September 30 deadline. “And I’m hopeful and optimistic that we’ll be able to do that”, McConnell, a Republican, said of both a temporary agency funding bill and Zika money.
As of late August, there were more than 16,800 cases of Zika in the United States, including Puerto Rico, where the concentration of cases was highest. The remainder of the cases were travel-related.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Republicans should keep additions from the most conservative Republicans away from the Zika bill. “It doesn’t make sense except as a political stunt”. There is an internal debate to pass only a measure that would only fund the government for a short period of time and therefore require Congress to re-examine the budget after the November election. “We are two separate bodies, but we’re talking to each other”.
The Miami Herald on Tuesday quoted Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, who chairs a Senate panel overseeing healthcare funding, suggesting the Planned Parenthood language might have to be dropped in order to reach a deal. She called on Republicans to approve Zika money now that will last for a year.
Democrats continue to object to that measure and hope to revive the earlier bipartisan Senate agreement. “Can’t make that stuff up – that’s really the truth – than protecting women and babies from this bad virus”, said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
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“Let’s stop this monkey business”, Nelson said, on the Senate floor.
