May 11, 2016 The Skanner Page 9
News
By ANDREW TAYLOR,
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
White House and Dem-
ocrats are pressuring
congressional Republi-
cans to act on President
Barack Obama’s demands
for money to combat
Zika, but even the onset
of mosquito season that
probably will spread the
virus has failed to create
a sense of urgency.
Republicans
from
states at greatest risk,
such as Florida, Texas,
Louisiana and Geor-
gia, have been slow to
endorse Obama’s more
than 2-month-old request
for $1.9 billion to battle
the virus, which caus-
es grave birth defects.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
currently reports more
than 470 cases in the con-
tinental U.S., all so far
associated with travel to
“
Syrian refugees were er-
roneously linked to the
attack.
“Any time there’s a
public health issue, bor-
dering on crisis, there’s
obviously some urgen-
cy,” said Rep. David Jolly,
R-Fla., who’s running to
replace Republican Sen.
Marco Rubio. Jolly add-
ed, however, that “I don’t
know that it has become
a political issue in Flor-
ida as much as it has in-
side the Beltway.”
One voice for immedi-
ate action, however, is
Rubio, who’s leaving the
Senate after his unsuc-
cessful presidential bid.
“It is just a matter of
days, weeks, hours be-
fore you open up a news-
paper or turn on the
news, and it will say that
someone in the conti-
nental United States was
bitten by a mosquito and
they contracted Zika,”
Rubio said in an April 28
“But we want to make
sure we’re not writing
blank checks.”
One reason for the slow
pace may be Ebola, which
affected far fewer people
but created more public
fear than Zika has. The
Ebola panic proved to be
unjustified and was con-
tained to just a handful
of U.S. cases
A poll in March by the
Kaiser Family Founda-
tion found by a more t
han 2-to-1 margin that
respondents said the
government is doing
enough to fight Zika. But
an October 2014 Kaiser
poll on Ebola found that
only about half of re-
spondents thought the
government was doing
enough.
Just 34 percent of those
polled on Zika were
worried that someone
in their family would
be affected by the virus,
versus 65 percent who
‘Sometimes the wheels of Congress move very
slowly,’ Cornyn said. ‘But we want to make sure
we’re not writing blank checks’
Zika-affected areas.
Polls show that the pub-
lic isn’t anywhere nearly
as scared of Zika as it was
about the Ebola outbreak
in West Africa and the
handful of cases in the
U.S. in 2014. Aides to GOP
lawmakers, even those
representing Southern
areas most vulnera-
ble to Zika, say they’ve
yet to hear from many
anxious
constituents,
though they said this
could change. “Very few
calls/letters,” emailed a
spokeswoman for Rep.
Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla.
On Monday, the Nation-
al Governors Associat-
ed weighed in, urging
the administration and
lawmakers
returning
to Washington “to work
together to reach agree-
ment on the appropriate
funding levels needed to
prepare for and combat
the Zika virus.”
The congressional re-
sponse to Zika contrasts
sharply with the rush
last year to pass legisla-
tion to curb the admis-
sion of Syrian refugees,
which passed the House
less than a week after
terrorist attacks in Paris.
floor speech. “When that
happens, everyone is go-
ing to be freaked out ....
This is going to happen.”
Rubio also has ap-
pealed for congressional
action to aid debt-ridden
Puerto Rico, another
unresolved issue as law-
makers return to Wash-
ington on Monday for
a brief, three-week May
congressional session.
The House may act on
legislation to combat opi-
oid abuse and perhaps
belatedly pass a budget
while the Senate strug-
gles to make headway on
the annual spending bills
after a dispute over last
year’s Iran nuclear deal
enveloped a popular en-
ergy and water projects
measure.
Thus far, Rubio’s ur-
gency on Zika is not
widely shared, though
Sen. John Cornyn of Tex-
as, the No. 2 Republican,
drew attention when he
told reporters in Hous-
ton last month that “the
risk of underreacting is
really too high to take
any chances.”
“Sometimes the wheels
of Congress move very
slowly,” Cornyn said.
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were not worried; the
comparable figures on
Ebola showed 45 per-
cent worried someone
in their family would get
sick from Ebola, versus
54 percent who were not
worried.
In addition, Congress
approved $5 billion to
battle Ebola in 2014 and
perhaps half of that mon-
ey is unspent, though
the administration has
designs to use it to help
other lesser developed
countries build up their
health care systems. The
threat of Ebola has not
been wholly snuffed out.
In April, the adminis-
tration bowed to pres-
sure from Republicans
and diverted almost $600
million in previously
approved funds, includ-
ing more than $500 mil-
lion in remaining Ebola
money, toward fighting
Zika. That has bought
time for Republicans to
seek greater details and
potentially respond to
Obama’s request by in-
cluding Zika funds in an
upcoming spending bill
that could be delivered to
the president before Con-
gress recesses in mid-Ju-
AP PHOTO/RICARDO MAZALAN, FILE
Mosquito Season Brings No Urgency for Money to Fight Zika
In this Feb. 11, 2016 file photo of aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen in a mosquito cage at a laboratory in
Cucuta, Colombia. The White House and Democrats are pressuring congressional Republicans to act on
President Barack Obama’s demands for money to combat the Zika virus, but even the onset of mosquito
season sure to spread the virus has failed to create a sense of urgency.
ly for seven weeks. One
option is adding the mon-
ey to a popular measure
funding politically sacro-
sanct veterans programs.
“We are still waiting
for answers from the
administration to basic
questions, such as what
is needed right now, over
the next five months to
fight Zika,” Crenshaw
said.
Just one other GOP law-
maker, Florida Rep. Vern
Buchanan, has endorsed
Obama’s $1.9 billion re-
quest. “Instead of work-
ing together to protect
Americans, Washington
has descended into an-
other partisan fight,” Bu-
chanan said.
Still, it’s clear the
White House won’t get
anything approaching
its $1.9 billion request for
emergency money to bat-
tle Zika. Senate Republi-
cans privately floated a
$1.1 billion Zika-fighting
measure, but House Re-
publicans are likely to
press for a lesser amount
— and require offsetting
spending cuts elsewhere
in the budget, an idea
that the administration
has not ruled out.
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