The House of Representatives approved $622.1 million in emergency funding on Wednesday for federal agencies to fight the spread of the Zika virus.
Combined with the $589 million that was previously redirected to Zika activities, the House measure would bring the total amount dedicated to fighting Zika in fiscal year 2016 to $1.2 billion.
The Senate, meanwhile, approved an amendment earlier this week that would authorize $1.1 billion in emergency funding for Zika in addition to the $589 million that had previously been directed.
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said that he was pleased that the House had offered a responsible solution “in the midst of an ever-changing health crisis.”
“Beyond the measure passed this week, it is also important to set the record straight on what has already been done to respond to Zika,” Cole said. “For Democrats to suggest that the administration hasn’t already had adequate funding available to immediately confront the emergency is untrue. In addition to the funding measure passed by the House, nearly $600 million has already been deployed for this purpose and been at the disposal of the Administration for dealing with the crisis — using money left over for Ebola and unused HHS administrative costs. Moreover, hundreds of millions of dollars will be considered and dedicated through annual appropriations bills to deal with the ongoing Zika crisis.”
The Zika Response Appropriations Act, H.R. 5243, would provide $230 million to the National Institutes of Health for vaccine testing, $170 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mosquito control, $119.1 million to the Department of State and U.S Agency for International Development, and $103 million for Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop better diagnostic tests.
“The global outbreak of Zika virus is a public health crisis, and this bill provides the resources needed to ensure a robust response,” U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) said. “These funds are critical to efforts at home and abroad to control the spread of this devastating disease and develop effective medical treatments for those affected.”
U.S. Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) said that it is clear that Zika poses a serious public health risk, and Congress must act immediately to address it.
“That is why the House (on Wednesday) passed the Zika Response Appropriations Act, an emergency measure that provides the quickest and most immediate response, a measure that will provide $622 million dollars in funds to combat the virus now, and fully offset by reduction to other taxpayer funded accounts,” Jolly said.
U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), however, argued that the $622 million allocated for Zika activities in the bill was not enough.
“The funding in this bill is far less than what the Centers for Disease Control said is needed to confront the Zika threat,” Buchanan said. “The lives of thousands of infants are potentially at risk. There’s no excuse for failure to act responsibly and swiftly.”
Buchanan had supported fully funding the Obama administration’s request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding to fight the virus.
Curbelo said that the threat posed by Zika “does not cease at the end of the government’s fiscal year” and that rescinding funds in the bill on Sept. 30 would “provide little confidence that Congress is truly committed to fighting the disease.”
“Regrettably this bill falls short in funding the fight against Zika and offers no guarantee that efforts to combat the virus will be adequately supported after September 30 of this year,” Curbelo said. “To remedy this, earlier this week I submitted an amendment to the Committee on Rules that would allow funds provided in this bill to be available until fully expended. Unfortunately it was not ruled in order.”
Curbelo noted that there had been 112 confirmed cases of Zika in Florida, and he called consequences for pregnant women and unborn children “dire.”
“Congress must provide agencies tasked with combating the disease the necessary resources and the long-term certainty to fully eradicate this virus,” Curbelo said. “I cannot vote for this half-hearted, short-sighted effort, and I remain in strong support of funding the administration’s $1.9 billion Zika response request.”