Burwell announced that $34 million will be transferred within the National Institutes of Health and another $47 million will be given to Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) so that neither has to delay research into Zika vaccines.
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Government scientists have identified the most promising Zika vaccine and have started human trials, but a congressional impasse is forcing them to borrow money intended for crucial work on cancer, diabetes, Ebola and other deadly diseases.
The Obama administration in February requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika, but the Republican-led Congress has approved no money.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is working on the vaccine, but will run out of Zika funding at the end of the month, the agency’s director Anthony Fauci said.
Burwell made it clear that she’s not happy about having to move money out of other NIH programs at a time when lawmakers from both parties insist they want to give the agency more money for research into lifesaving cures.
“With the actions described above, we have exhausted our ability to provide even short-term financing to help fight Zika”, Burwell said in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The Obama administration on Friday declared a public health emergency in the USA territory of Puerto Rico, saying the rapid and widespread transmission of the Zika virus threatens the health of infected pregnant women and their babies. Those cases stem from people who were infected elsewhere and brought the virus into Florida.
Rubio criticized fellow Republicans for months and more recently directed his ire at the Obama administration for refusing to reallocate previously appropriated money to the Zika fight. With the summer almost over, the disease has turned out to be somewhat less severe – with local mosquito transmission only detected in one neighborhood in Miami, for a total of 25 cases so far.
“This administration is committed to meeting the Zika outbreak in Puerto Rico with the necessary urgency”, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement.
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Democrats accused Republicans of adding last-minute provisions unrelated to Zika, among them cutting funds for Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, along with placing new restrictions on publicly funded abortions.
