A 52-46 vote to advance the money fell short of the 60 votes needed as Democrats opposed provisions blocking Zika prevention and treatment money from going to Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico. “Now is the time to lead and to show the American people that Congress will act to protect them”.
Advertisement
“Rather than continuing to work with Democrats, Republicans made a decision to appease a group so extreme that they didn’t even want Zika funding to begin with”, he said in a statement.
Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue agreed that partisanship has interfered with Zika funding’s passage, but has a different perspective of the problem. “It went to the House and they sent it back with all of this unusual, weird stuff in it”, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday. The bill also lessened permit requirements for pesticide spraying in order to kill the mosquitoes that carry Zika. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has said he wants to keep negotiating into the fall on full-year spending measures.
“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.
The World Health Organization says the outbreak of Zika remains an worldwide health emergency and that while the virus continues to hit new countries, experts still aren’t sure how big the risk is that pregnant. That means lawmakers will have to pass legislation to extend current spending and keep the government open just weeks before the November election.
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.
If Planned Parenthood doesn’t get paid, Shaheen won’t let the Senate send the Zika bill to President Obama.
Like usual, Republicans are playing politics to appeal to their extremist base instead of doing the right thing and passing a clean funding bill to combat this deadly virus.
Shaheen objects to a provision inserted by House Republicans that would prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving grants for Zika services.
For his part, Ryan has to navigate some tricky waters on the underlying stopgap spending bill, known in Washington-speak as a continuing resolution.
Tuesday also marked the re-opening of the Capitol rotunda after a year-long restoration.
Advertisement
Still unclear is how GOP leaders will handle conservatives’ demands that the House impeach John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner.
