WASHINGTON EXAMINER: GOP to Dems, ‘Let’s Pass Zika Funding Tomorrow’

By  //  August 5, 2016

demand follows news that mosquitos are transmitting Zika virus in small section of Miami

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Republicans and Democrats are squabbling over partisan issues in legislation to fund Zika prevention and research funding.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER — Republicans are calling on Democrats to pass a Zika funding measure as soon as Friday, when the Senate is scheduled to hold a pro forma session.

“If Senate Democrats want to pass a bill now … they can simply give unanimous consent to pass the conference report in tomorrow’s session and send it straight to the president,” Don Stewart, spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Washington Examiner.

Earlier Thursday, Senate Democrats sent a letter to McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., calling on them to reconvene Congress to take up a Zika funding measures. The demand follows news that mosquito-transmitted Zika virus has been discovered in a small section of Miami, according to Examiner Congressional Correspondent Susan Ferrechio.

Neither chamber is expected to be in session otherwise until Sept. 6.

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Republicans, led by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (left) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, say Senate Democrats are to blame for the Zika funding holdup because they blocked a $1.1 billion measure that had already passed the House and needed only the approval of the upper chamber to reach President Obama’s desk.

Zika normally causes a mild illness but can cause a birth defect called microcephaly in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.

Republicans say Senate Democrats are to blame for the funding holdup because they blocked a $1.1 billion measure that had already passed the House and needed only the approval of the upper chamber to reach President Obama’s desk.

 

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