Senate easily advances $1.1 billion in Zika funding ADVERTISING Senate easily advances $1.1 billion in Zika funding WASHINGTON — The Senate voted decisively on Tuesday in favor of a bipartisan $1.1 billion measure to combat the Zika virus this year
Senate easily advances $1.1 billion in Zika funding
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted decisively on Tuesday in favor of a bipartisan $1.1 billion measure to combat the Zika virus this year and next, cutting back President Barack Obama’s request but offering significantly more money to fight Zika than would House GOP conservatives.
The 68-29 vote propelled the measure over a filibuster and sets the stage to add the Zika funding to an unrelated spending bill. It comes three months after Obama requested $1.9 billion to battle the virus, which can cause severe birth defects.
“We see the people of this country facing a public health threat,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who supports the full Obama request. “Our response should be ‘Let’s deal with it the way that medical experts are saying we need to deal with it.’”
A showdown looms with the House, which is scheduled to debate its $622 million anti-Zika measure on Wednesday. The House would fund the Zika battle for a shorter duration — through September — and is “offset” with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.
The Senate vote came after Republicans blocked a measure matching Obama’s request and after Democrats killed a GOP-backed proposal to cut into Obama’s health care law to pay for battling Zika.
Report: GMO crops not harmful to humans, but weed resistance is a problem
CHICAGO — Genetically engineered crops present no more risk to human health than conventionally bred crops, but the evolution of resistance in both insects and weeds caused by growing such crops has become “a major agricultural problem,” according to a long-awaited study released Tuesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Beyond that, well, it’s complicated.
In Tuesday’s public briefing on the 400-plus-page report, there were some fist-pump moments for both sides of the ongoing debate in the food industry on labeling products that contain genetically modified organisms.
GMO ingredients are made from crops like corn, soybeans and sugar beets that have been bioengineered to resist herbicides and pests. Those supportive of GMOs lauded the report’s clear message that genetically engineered crops are not a food safety issue; those opposed trumpeted the report’s finding that bioengineered crops have not increased the rate of crop yield in the U.S.
In other words, there was a little something for everyone in the report, which likely will fuel more debate even while guiding policymakers on future policy and regulation.
“We took our job very seriously, because we know how contentious this issue is,” said Fred Gould, professor of entomology at North Carolina State University and chairman of the 20-person committee that produced the report, in his remarks Tuesday.
Some states are pushing forward laws requiring foods with GMOs to be labeled. A Vermont law that mandates labels — the first of its kind — takes effect July 1. In March, a bill that aimed to pre-empt laws like Vermont’s while also establishing a national voluntary standard stalled in the U.S. Senate.
In the past year or so, the drumbeat has steadily grown louder for mandatory labeling, as consumers and food advocates say they have a right to know what’s in their food. Meanwhile, many food companies have maintained such labeling would be misleading because there’s nothing harmful about GMO ingredients.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the report “adds to the long list of research that shows genetically engineered foods are safe” and called on Congress to take action to “prevent further confusion.”
“USDA stands ready to work with Congress to develop a cohesive national system for giving shoppers the information they want to know about foods they are purchasing, without driving up costs or sending the wrong message about the safety of their food options,” Vilsack said in the statement.
