Senate Dems block Zika funding
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP-drafted measure to provide $1.1 billion to fight the Zika virus, accusing Republicans of packing the measure with partisan provisions and unfair spending cuts.
The nearly party-line 52-48 vote Tuesday left the Senate short of the 60 votes required to advance the measure. What happens next is unclear since the White House is adamant in dedicating $2 billion to fight the Zika virus, which, scientists say, causes severe birth defects in children if the mother contracts the disease during pregnancy.
Democrats say they also oppose the provision because of offsets attached to the drafted measure, which would take away $95 million in federal grants from vital services such as providing birth control to women in Puerto Rico where the disease is rampant.
"They restrict funding for birth control provided by Planned Parenthood. Can you believe that?" Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. "And the Zika problem, who does it affect? Women and especially pregnant women."
On the other side of the aisle, however, Senate Republicans warned their liberal counterparts prior to Tuesday's vote not to block the measure because they will have to bear the responsibility of children born with microcephaly, one of the birth defects caused by the virus in which the a baby's head and brain is smaller than normal.
"Putting politics before a public health crisis is about as irresponsible as it gets," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement following the vote. "So much for all those lectures about doing your job."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms more than 2,500 of Zika cases in the United States and its territories. In February, the CDC issued travel notices in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. Just this past April, the first Zika-related death was reported in Puerto Rico.
Though no formal vaccine exists, vaccine trials to prevent the virus are set to begin this September, nearly seven months after the virus hit the U.S. mainland.