Senate Democrats block GOP’s bill to fund Zika fight
Reporting from WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Republican proposal to provide $1.1 billion to fight the Zika virus, faulting the GOP for packing the measure with restrictions on Planned Parenthood money and changes to policies on pesticide spraying.
The nearly party-line 52-48 vote left the Senate short of the 60 votes required to advance the measure. What happens next is unclear, though neither side is looking forward to leaving Washington next for a seven-week vacation without having acted to address the health threat. Zika is spread mainly by a tropical mosquito and is causing an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean. The virus can cause birth defects and is likely to spread further this summer.
Democrats pressed to resume negotiations while Republicans insisted, for now at least, that the measure negotiated by House and Senate Republicans is the best the Obama administration is going to get.
President Obama requested $1.9 billion back in February but Republicans controlling Congress were slow to act, instead forcing the administration to redirect more than $500 million in unspent Ebola-fighting funds to combat Zika.
“There’s not going to be another opportunity to deal with this in the near future,” promised John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican .
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The House-Senate measure matches the $1.1-billion measure that passed the Senate last month on a sweeping vote, but Democrats oppose a handful of provisions designed to mollify GOP conservatives in the House and the attachment of companion spending cuts to defray its cost.
Democrats particularly oppose a provision that restricts the use of $95 million worth of federal grants to provide services such as birth control to women in Puerto Rico threatened by the virus. Democrats charged that the restrictions were targeted at Planned Parenthood, a group loathed by many antiabortion Republicans.
Democrats argue that Republicans are using the bill to push their ideology. In addition to the limits on Planned Parenthood, the bill would lift restrictions on pesticide spraying that is opposed by environmentalists.
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