Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a $1.1 billion Zika funding measure for the third time, a move that is expected to trigger new negotiations to author a bipartisan bill aimed at combating the mosquito-transmitted virus that is spreading in Florida.
Senate Republicans tried yet again to get the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill and call it up for a final vote, but fell short 52-46 as Democrats voted against it. The Democratic filibuster marks the third time party lawmakers have stood in the way of the GOP-authored bill.
Democratic lawmakers have refused to back the legislation because it strips more than half a billion dollars from a defunct Obamacare fund as well as more than $200 million from other unspent federal funds. Democrats also oppose the bill because the funding would not be distributed to clinics in Puerto Rico that are affiliated with Planned Parenthood, a women's health care and abortion provider. And finally, they want the GOP to strike language in the bill that would allow spraying for mosquitos near water, which is banned under the Clean Water Act.
Republican and Democratic leaders have been trading barbs on the Zika funding issue for weeks, after Congress failed to find a way to fund the fight against the virus before the summer.
Democrats accuse the GOP of ignoring an important health crisis while Republicans say Democrats are playing politics with the legislation by blocking it.
"It's hard to explain why, despite their own calls for funding, Senate Democrats decided to block a bill that would keep pregnant women and babies safer from Zika," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shot back in a following speech that the GOP had ordered the longest summer recess in more than 60 years despite the ongoing crisis. The House and Senate's typical August recess included two additional weeks in July thanks to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
"I'm still stunned that the Republican leader decided to have a seven-week vacation and it was more important to do that than funding our nation's Zika response," Reid said.
The two sides are expected to put aside partisan bickering and come up with a deal, however.
GOP aides on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees tell the Washington Examiner various proposals are under discussion. Among them is a proposal to attach funding to the must-pass funding measure that is needed to keep the federal government operating past a Sept. 30 deadline.
But Republican lawmakers have so far refused to speculate on future deals and instead called on Democrats to stop blocking the current Zika funding plan.
Senate Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday that according to the CDC, spraying is helping to reduce mosquitos and thus the spread of Zika and that Congressional funding is needed for mosquito abatement, particularly in Florida, where the disease has spread in the Miami area.
"These instances from the summer further underscore the urgency of the challenges facing us and why it's imperative that our colleagues end their irresponsible filibusters of these bills," McCarthy said.
