Administration warns Congress: Zika money running out

Lynch, co-sponsor of a bill that provides $1.9 billion in emergency funding to fight Zika, is talking with “Morning Meeting” hosts Jaclyn Cashman and Kevin Franck about his letter urging House and Senate lawmakers to return to Capitol Hill immediately to address President Obama’s request for the funding as the risk of transmission spreads across the United States. The virus has been linked to microcephaly and other critical birth defects. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee, called on Congress Tuesday to return to Washington for an emergency session to pass a supplemental funding bill.

“They left on a seven-week recess a day early, at the height of mosquito season and basically told the American people, ‘good luck, ‘” Earnest said.

The warning came the same day that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it has begun phase I trials for a potential Zika vaccine.

“A delay in this stage of development will delay when a safe and effective Zika vaccine is available to the American public”, Burwell wrote. Of that, almost $100 million will have been provided by week’s end, and resources will be virtually exhausted by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, the letter says. Additional research and development also may be constrained as NIH’s $47 million in repurposed funding runs out by the end of this month. 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. Although Congress typically finds a way to get beyond its partisanship and act when circumstances absolutely require, it’s not clear what will happen in this case at the height of a frenzied election season, and with the virus still not widespread in this country.

In an opinion piece in a newspaper in his home state of Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed Democrats for the failure to pass Zika funding.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says officials are finding it challenging to eradicate mosquitoes in the Wynwood area. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is behind the large outbreaks of Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said Congress doesn’t have to interrupt its lengthy summer break to pass the bill.

“It’s inexcusable that the President of the United States and this administration is sitting on over $300 million re-purposed from Ebola to Zika that remain unspent”, Senator Rubio said.