WASHINGTON — With public health officials warning of a fast-spreading emergency, House and Senate negotiators will work to reconcile legislation aimed at providing up to $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus and the mosquitoes that carry it, Sen. Mitch McConnell said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — With public health officials warning of a fast-spreading emergency, House and Senate negotiators will work to reconcile legislation aimed at providing up to $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus and the mosquitoes that carry it, Sen. Mitch McConnell said Wednesday.
The Senate last month approved $1.1 billion — far less than the $1.9 billion sought by the Obama administration — in a regular appropriations measure, after four months of sparring with the White House.
The House, in turn, approved $622 million in a stand-alone measure that requires all of the money to be reallocated from existing programs, including efforts to fight Ebola.
The White House and congressional Democrats have accused Republicans of putting Americans at grave risk by slow-walking the legislation to fight Zika, which can cause serious birth defects, including microcephaly, in infants born to infected mothers. The Zika virus is also sexually transmitted, and health experts say both mosquito control and contraception are needed for protection against infection.
Congressional Republicans have said the White House has had sufficient financing to begin addressing the problem using more than $500 million reallocated from anti-Ebola programs in April.
“We all agree that the Zika virus is a real threat and needs to be addressed,” McConnell, the majority leader from Kentucky, said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass a bill here in the Senate to provide funding and resources. The House passed its own version. We are now ready to go to conference and complete a final bill.”
Shortly after his statement, however, Senate Democrats held a news conference urging Republicans to move faster and approve the full amount of money sought by the White House. “The mosquitoes are not waiting for Congress to act,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said there were five new Zika cases reported on Tuesday in his state. “This is an emergency,” Nelson said.
So far, the hundreds of Zika cases reported in the United States all appear to have been contracted in Central and South America and the Caribbean, where mosquitoes carrying the virus are now widespread. But experts say mosquito transmission in the United States is inevitable and almost certain to begin in southern states during the summer.
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