The news comes as Congress returns from their seven-week summer recess and promptly entered into a gridlock related to Zika funding.
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Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas told Politico in an interview that a standoff over Planned Parenthood is “not the goal”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blamed Democrats for the defeat. In voting down legislation to combat the imminent public health emergency posed by Zika, Democrats complained that Republicans slipped in a “poison pill” provision to limit funds to Planned Parenthood.
In response to the blocked Zika bill, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said, “If we don’t get new money, we won’t be able to do things at a pace that is necessary and appropriate to the urgency of this threat”. “They tried to disguise the fact that they wanted to eliminate Planned Parenthood”.
For his part, House Speaker Paul Ryan said the House has already passed Zika money, and Democrats in the Senate are preventing it from going to the president for a signature.
“Our colleagues across the aisle will point to partisan excuses, but the bottom line is this: There’s no excuse not to pass these bills”, McConnell said. At least 16 babies have been born in the United States with birth defects linked to the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising that pregnant women avoid traveling to those areas of Miami where infections are occurring to reduce their risk of contracting Zika. “Congress needs to act and it needs to act now”.
The spending bill is the most important item on the Congressional agenda for investors, but Congress has let budget legislation come down to the wire so many times in recent years that the market may not pay much attention this time. Without a bill, federal agencies possibly will be shut down. “Now her running mate Tim Kaine is doing his best impression of her double-talk, unable to pull himself off the campaign trail to attend a vote for the crucial Zika funding that Floridians desperately need and that he himself demanded last month”, Fetalvo criticized.
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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is seeking re-election with Zika as a main campaign issue, said the Senate should again approve its original Zika bill. “Put the nonsense aside, stop the pointless political posturing and do your job”.
