Congress’ Republican leaders are facing decisions on averting a federal shutdown, containing the Zika virus and impeaching the head of the IRS.
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“It is disappointing to watch Iowa’s GOP Senators vote for a bill that would only partially fund the fight against the Zika virus and would punish women in Zika affected areas by limiting their access to health services”, she said.
“The House should drop the poison pill language so we can pass a clean bill immediately”, Kirk wrote in a statement. That legislation would be meant to keep the government funded because it seems increasingly likely that Congress will not pass its annual spending bills by then. The main stumbling block is a Republican effort to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving money to combat the mosquito-borne disease, according to a report in The New York Times.
This marks the third time that Democrats have voted to block the Zika funding bill, leading Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., to accuse his colleagues on the other side of the aisle of jeopardizing babies’ health. Some residents are protesting the use of pesticides to be sprayed overhead to kill mosquitoes.
The Zika threat hasn’t gripped the public nationwide as Ebola did two years ago, but pressure is building as dozens of mosquito-transmitted Zika cases have been confirmed in the political battleground state of Florida since lawmakers left Washington in July. Not surprisingly, not only is Congress expected to miss the deadline for the bill, lawmakers can’t agree on the duration of a stopgap spending bill.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, however, knows the blame is all the Democrats. That bipartisan compromise legislation would have provided $1.1 billion in Zika funding through September 2017 and it did not include the added provisions objected to by Democrats.
These figures come from the nation’s top health officials, who have been – with no thanks from you – working hard this summer to keep track of Zika’s spread, help local public health agencies deal with cases and develop a vaccine.
Senate Democrats once again blocked the measure, which included provisions that would restricted Planned Parenthood.
There’s a lot on the docket, but there’s only one thing that Congress must do in the coming month: figure out a way to keep the government open before spending legislation expires October 1. Democrats have accused Republicans of attaching controversial provisions related to abortion that they can not accept.
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The House will vote as early as next week on a conservative effort to impeach IRS chief John Koskinen.
