As Democrats made their intentions clear, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they should be renamed “the dysfunction party” and warned that this is a unsafe period to block money for the Pentagon. The White House has not said whether President Barack Obama would sign it. However, public health officials have said repeatedly the disease could jump to American mosquitoes if a Zika-infected individual is bitten.
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The House easily passed a bill to combat the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic Friday after Democrats who’d demanded more funding beat a retreat, saying they would fight for money another day. The new diagnoses, Nelson said, “brings the state’s total to 263, which includes 43 pregnant women”. In addition, the measure was paid for by cuts of $107 million in Ebola funding and $543 million in funding for Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act.
What’s the best way to prevent more babies being born with awful deformities from the Zika virus?
More than 1,100 Americans have become infected with the virus while traveling overseas.
The measure, a top priority for House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-St. “There is no third option”, Stewart said.
Senate Democrats are blocking a $1.1 billion deal to combat Zika, raising fears that the opioids bill could also be in jeopardy, though strong Democratic support in the House may put those fears to rest. At least six Democrats will need to support the bill for it to reach the 60-vote threshold to advance to the White House. Isakson said he hopes to move the measure in the next two weeks, in the hopes of giving House staffers the opportunity to consider it over the August break.
“We can’t do it on the cheap”, said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “That’s why we haven’t been able to do things like begin ramping up centers of excellence to improve the performance of diagnostic tests, of mosquito control and to begin some of the really in-depth studies”, he said. “In the context of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican version of Planned Parenthood, that’s where they go”. Because of that, Senate Democrats are not playing along. “It’s a time to compromise and get something done”. Senate Democrats called on McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan to revive a bipartisan measure that passed the Senate in May.
What is at stake is $1.1 billion in funding to combat Zika.
Despite the fact there is plenty of money scattered across the federal government that could be used without Congress adding another dime to the debt, Democrats have made the decision to hold hostage the health of the American people until they get more money, and until some of those dollars are given to Planned Parenthood.
About 28,000 people died of overdoses in the United States in 2014, four times the number in 2000. So far, 28 confirmed cases are exhibiting symptoms in Florida. Seven U.S. infants have been born with Zika-related birth defects, Frieden said.
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More than 2,000 locally acquired Zika cases have been reported in USA territories, with most in Puerto Rico, where an average of 15 people are infected each day. However, unlike the Senate bill, the House amendment claimed that about two-thirds of the costs would be offset. Public health professionals advocating prevention are renewing a familiar ounce-of-prevention warning: pay now or pay later.
