The news about the Zika virus keeps getting worse.
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Congress has failed to approve any funding to fight the mosquito-borne virus since President Barack Obama asked for $US1.9 billion ($A2.5 billion) in February.
That’s unconscionable. Zika, which is spreading into the United States from South America, is a terrifying disease. On Tuesday, even remote Malaysia reported its first case of a Zika-infected pregnant woman. The virus has also been linked to neurological complications and Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause temporary paralysis.
Today on the Senate floor U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) pressed Senate Democrats to stop blocking bipartisan, compromise legislation that would fund efforts to protect Americans from the Zika virus.
McConnell would not say if government funding and Zika would be joined into a single bill although several senators in both parties believed they would end up in one package.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters that the goal is to fund the government at last year’s levels, through December 9 of this year.
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.
Congress does not have time for political games.
Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle say they are working towards a deal to pass the legislation, likely alongside a measure to fund the government until December 9. New research suggests the virus may not be to blame for the uptick in birth defects in some areas affected by the virus.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid also said he hopes “to do something quickly”, but warned his party would block bills that included what Democrats consider poison pills, like restrictions on funding for Planned Parenthood and cuts to Obamacare in the Zika bill. “Since then, it has become clear that Congressional Republicans would rather limit access to family planning services – which puts millions more women at risk of contracting Zika and giving birth to a child with microcephaly – than ensure that we are fully prepared to combat this disease”.
“Recently I was in Houston, Texas with some of my friends from the Harris County Public Health District, and they were demonstrating to me how they trap mosquitoes”. But CDC director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said the agency will run out of money month for Zika efforts unless Congress steps up to the plate.
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“It’s been almost four months since the Senate overwhelmingly passed a compromise measure that would fund the fight against Zika”, Hirono said in a press release.
