The White House and Democrats are pressuring congressional Republicans to act on President Barack Obama’s demands for money to combat Zika, but The Associated Press reports 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 Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Georgia, have been slow to endorse Obama’s more than two-month-old request for $1.9 billion to battle the virus, which causes grave birth defects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 470 cases in the continental U.S., all of which are associated with travel to Zika-affected areas.
Polls show that the public 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 vulnerable to Zika, say they’ve yet to hear from many anxious constituents, though they say this could change. “Very few calls/letters,” emailed a spokeswoman for Rep. Ander Crenshaw, a Republican from Florida..
The congressional response to Zika contrasts sharply with the rush last year to pass legislation to curb the admission of Syrian refugees, which passed the House less than a week after terrorist attacks in Paris. Syrian refugees were erroneously linked to the attack.
“Any time there’s a public health issue, bordering on crisis, there’s obviously some urgency,” says Republican Rep. David Jolly of Florida, who’s running to replace Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. Jolly adds, however, that “I don’t know that it has become a political issue in Florida as much as it has inside the Beltway.”
One voice for immediate action, however, is Rubio, who’s leaving the Senate after his unsuccessful presidential bid.
“It is just a matter of days, weeks, hours before you open up a newspaper or turn on the news, and it will say that someone in the continental United States was bitten by a mosquito and they contracted Zika,” Rubio said in an April 28 floor speech. “When that happens, everyone is going to be freaked out ….This is going to happen.”
