WASHINGTON — As Zika escalates into a public health crisis and the number of mosquito-transmitted cases grows, Republicans and Democrats are pointing fingers over the failure by Congress to commit federal dollars to fight the virus. ADVERTISING WASHINGTON — As
WASHINGTON — As Zika escalates into a public health crisis and the number of mosquito-transmitted cases grows, Republicans and Democrats are pointing fingers over the failure by Congress to commit federal dollars to fight the virus.
President Barack Obama on Thursday sought to pressure congressional Republicans over the issue, encouraging voters to “call your members of Congress and tell them to do their job.”
“The money that we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out. The situation is getting critical,” Obama said at a news conference.
Yet lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion that Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus.
Abortion politics played a central role in the impasse.
Republicans angered Democrats by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, writing in USA Today on Thursday, did not mention that provision in blaming Democrats for blocking the legislation. Their obstruction, according to Ryan, R-Wis., is “a blatant ploy in an election year.”
Also Thursday, 47 Senate Democrats called on Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to reconvene Congress and immediately address the Zika threat. They faulted GOP leaders for allowing “poison pill special-interest priorities” into the bill.
But McConnell has signaled he is in no rush to return. Writing in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader on Monday, he criticized Democrats for balking at passing the bill. He said they’ll get another chance after Labor Day when Congress is back in session.
