Senate Democrats Block Zika Funding

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats voted to block funding to fight the Zika virus. The vote was 52-48 in favor of blocking a military spending bill that earmarked more than 1 billion dollars to researching and fighting the Zika virus.

Democrat Jon Donelly, of Indiana, broke with party leaders to vote for the bill. Three Republicans, James Lankgord, Mike Lee and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted no. The majority leader’s “no” vote allows for the senate to take up the vote once the recess ends.

While President Obama has been pushing for more funding to fight the Zika virus, Democratic Party leaders say this version of the bill contains several provisions that make it impossible for the party to support.  Two of the biggest problems Democrats have with the bill is that some of the funding would come from money used to fight Ebola and the bill also contains language that would strip funding from abortion clinics. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, says that the bill “the most irresponsible legislation I have ever seen in my 34 years in Congress.”  However, even if the bill had passed the Senate, Obama has said he would veto it.

McConnell has attacked Democrats accusing them of putting partisan politics ahead of public safety.  “They might like to pretend this Zika control measure is woefully inadequate, but Senate Democrats are all on record supporting this level of funding. It’s really puzzling to hear Democrats claim to be advocates for women’s health measures when they are the ones trying to block the Zika legislation.”

Senate Democrats sent a letter to McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan urging them to renegotiate the deal in advance of Tuesday’s vote. “We are writing to urge your cooperation in quickly negotiating an agreement that rejects politicizing disaster response with extreme and unnecessary partisan priorities.” The letter was signed by the Senate’s top four ranking Democrats.

McConnell has said the Zika bill will be up for a vote once Congress reconvenes after the July 4th recess. “When we get back after we’ve had time to think about it all, we’ll address this matter again and hopefully respond, as our constituents all across America are asking us to respond, to this pending health care crisis.”

We’ll have more updates on this story as it develops.

Featured image via Flickr/Ron Cogswell