The Obama administration and its Democratic allies oppose the idea, saying if Republicans want more money for defense, domestic programs will have to receive an equal boost.
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They have until September 30 to reach an agreement to avoid a government shutdown.
The House also has plans to vote on a bill that serves as a direct response to the White House-sanctioned transfer of $400 million to Iran on the same day four USA prisoners were freed earlier this summer.
And in many cases, the cash gap heading into the fall is so overwhelming that one party’s congressional nominee’s bank account would barely be a rounding error for the other party’s nominee. Other measures, such as gun control legislation and the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, face much longer odds for passage.
McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement released in early August that if Democrats prioritized Zika over Planned Parenthood and gave unanimous consent, Senate leadership would “pass the conference report and send it straight to the President”. “The Senate is being run into the ground”.
Conservatives want an extension until next year, putting off the larger spending fight until then.
Congress must settle on a budget to keep the government running at least through the election.
Republicans haven’t settled on a strategy yet and are expected to discuss their options in private sessions this week, according to aides.
APPHOTO WX210: In this May 24, 2016 photo, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. faces reporters at Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Supporters are hoping there could be action in the “lame duck” session after the election and before the new Congress next year.
It was the same bill that the Senate has rejected since June.
That approach might not be appealing to Ryan or McConnell either.
This will be conservatives’ first big test of power after the primaries, since one of their own (Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., a Freedom Caucus leader) lost to an establishment-backed candidate. Leaders in both parties feel otherwise – as does President Barack Obama – and a temporary measure until December seems to be the consensus. However, Democrats blocked consideration of the bill in the Senate because of attached legislation that prohibited Zika funding from going to Planned Parenthood and weakened some environmental regulations.
Georgia’s senior US senator, Republican Johnny Isakson, said Congress needs to put partisanship aside and approve more Zika money, even if it is not offset with new spending cuts. That would allow the Senate to vote on the must-pass legislation and leave town early, effectively forcing the House to either accept the Senate-passed bill or take the blame for a government shutdown.
Today, Republicans in Congress demanded that any funding for the nation’s response to the Zika outbreak must be paired with harmful new gifts to their most extreme constituencies.
Meantime, CDC Director Thomas Frieden is warning his agency is nearly out of the money needed to kill mosquitoes and find a vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has already committed to using $190 million of the roughly $220 million it had redirected to help combat the virus. “I think we have more leverage with the current president and the current majorities than we’re likely to have on the other side of this”, Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, told Politico.
The presidential election will be a dominating presence in the Capitol in September. “I’ve had a chance to tour right here locally the Scripps Institute and talk to the scientists there and they made it clear, Patrick, we don’t understand enough about this virus, we have to learn more”.
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“Why would the Democrats continue to do that with American lives in general?” This is the last work session before the November election, and so far zero dollars have been approved.
