Top Republicans: Zika funding likely on hold until September

Top US House Republicans said today that they are likely to grant a portion of President Barack Obama's USD 1.9 billion request to combat the Zika virus but will probably wait until September to do so.
Congressional Republicans have succeeded in forcing the administration to divert almost USD 600 million in unspent Ebola funds to fighting Zika. But the White House says more money will be needed.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said last week that without additional funding her agency might have to curtail mosquito control activities and might not be able to produce enough vaccine or develop better diagnostic tests.

Top Republicans on the powerful Appropriations Committee say they're willing to provide more money once they can better determine what is needed.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers told reporters that "we're prepared to try to do a supplemental bill if it's needed" and that action is likely "before the end of the fiscal year" on Oct. 1.
"We're certainly fine probably through the end of the fiscal year, so it's not like we have to do something today," said Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House panel responsible for the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

"But we do need to do something in the foreseeable future, and I would think before the end of the fiscal year," perhaps as an attachment to a funding bill that's required to prevent a government shutdown in October.
House Appropriations Committee Democrats will try to attach the full USD 1.9 billion Obama request to an unrelated bill funding the Department of Veterans Affairs but are likely to be rejected by Republicans controlling the panel.
The prospect of Congress taking a seven-week vacation this July and August, the height of the mosquito season, without having acted on Zika could give Democrats another reason to criticize Republicans.