Bill to provide $1.1 billion Zika funding dies in Senate vote
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday blocked a $1.1 billion bill to combat the Zika virus, giving Congress just two weeks to try to reach a new deal before lawmakers leave for a seven-week recess in the midst of mosquito season and a growing public health crisis.
Senators voted 52-48 to advance the bill, falling eight votes short of the 60 needed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., immediately made a motion to reconsider the vote, raising the possibility of another vote on the same bill next week.
"We'll address this matter again (next week) and hopefully respond...to this pending health care crisis," he said.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, warned before the vote that there would be no negotiations on a new Zika bill if the legislation failed Tuesday. But Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted that Republican leaders would relent and return to the negotiating table at the last minute to seek a compromise rather than go home for the summer with nothing to show their constituents.
"Republicans will come back in a few weeks with their tails between their legs," Schumer said. "Why they don't avoid that embarrassment is beyond me."
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McConnell blamed Democrats for playing partisan politics and dooming Zika funding.
"Our friends across the aisle can try to come up with a line of excuses as to why they are blocking funding to address the Zika crisis," McConnell said. "But here's what it all boils down to: partisan politics."
Democrats opposed the bill, which they complained was negotiated between Senate and House Republicans with little input from them and was loaded with "poison pill" riders that cut health programs, restricted funding for birth control services from Planned Parenthood, weakened clean water laws and blocked a ban on displaying the Confederate flag at U.S. military cemeteries.
Democratic leaders sent a letter Tuesday to McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., calling for an immediate round of new talks to try to produce a bipartisan compromise.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., whose state has been hit hardest by the Zika virus, warned his colleagues that the public health crisis is poised to become much worse if Congress doesn't act soon.
Florida has 223 Zika cases, including 40 pregnant women. The Florida Department of Health announced Tuesday the first confirmed case of microcephaly in an infant born in Florida. Microcephaly is a condition in which a baby is born with an unusually small head, often due to abnormal brain development.The Florida baby's mother contracted Zika while in Haiti.
"If you don't think the Zika crisis is an emergency, just wait," Nelson said. "These numbers are just going to increase...We need to stop playing these political games."
The bill, passed by the House at about 3 a.m. Thursday with no debate, would have cut $750 million from other health programs to fund anti-Zika efforts. The bill also would have cut $543 million in unused funds from the implementation of Obamacare, $107 million from leftover funds used to fight Ebola, and $100 million in administrative funds from the Health and Human Services Department.
The legislation would have provided $230 million for the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine and $476 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help pay for mosquito control efforts.
President Obama asked Congress in February to provide $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause devastating birth defects.
The Senate passed legislation in May to provide $1.1 billion in funding. Unlike the bill that came to the floor Tuesday, it did not require any budget cuts to fund it and did not include controversial provisions. The House passed a bill last month to provide $622 million in funding, drawing a veto threat from the White House, which called it woefully inadequate.
The legislation that the Senate voted on Tuesday was an attempt by House and Senate negotiators to try to find a compromise between those two bills.