Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Congress Leaves For 7-Week Recess With Zika Funding Unresolved
Congress limped out of town Thursday for a seven-week recess, leaving behind a trail of partisan fights, a failed bill to help fight the Zika virus, a stalemate on gun safety and a few mundane accomplishments that members hoped to sell as awesome to voters in an unsparing mood. The fierce partisanship was evident as some House Republicans filed a resolution to impeach the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, John A. Koskinen, while Hillary Clinton, over lunch at the Capitol with Senate Democrats, stressed that their hopes of reclaiming the majority were bound up with her aspirations of winning the White House. (Herszenhorn and Steinhauer, 7/14)
A partisan fight widened in recent weeks over how Congress should pay for money directed at combating the Zika virus and lawmakers didn鈥檛 resolve it before they left Thursday. House and Senate Republicans backed a measure that would have provided $1.1 billion in Zika funding, balanced with cuts to the 2010 health-law and money previously earmarked for fighting Ebola. Democrats said they could live with some of the budget cuts, but objected to a provision that would have prevented funding from going to ProFamilias, a group that partners with Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico, which has been hard hit by Zika. (Peterson, 7/14)
Congress is about to leave for a seven-week vacation without giving the Obama administration any of the $1.9 billion it鈥檚 seeking to battle the Zika virus, and a Senate effort to revive the nuts-and-bolts process of passing agency budgets was dealt a significant setback at the hands of Democrats. (Taylor, 7/15)
Caught up in a partisan squabble about Planned Parenthood, the Senate once again failed Thursday to advance a $1.1 billion package to fund the US response to the Zika virus. The measure fell short in a procedural vote, 52 to 44. It needed 60 votes to advance. With the Zika funding question still unresolved, Congress is leaving town for the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions and won鈥檛 return until September. Leaders from both parties laid the blame at the other鈥檚 feet for the impasse. (Scott, 7/14)
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a deal to provide $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus for a second time, effectively kicking the funding fight into September. Senators voted 52-44 on a procedural hurdle. Sixty votes were needed to move forward with the Zika money, which is attached to a larger military and veterans spending bill. (Carney, 7/14)
Democrats have repeatedly criticized Republicans for including language in the conference report that they say would would prevent funds from going to Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico. Republicans have shot back by saying their position represents a lack of support for pregnant women. ... The inability of the Republican-led Congress to pass the legislation is a politically risky move ahead of the recess. The number of infants born with microcephaly linked to the Zika virus will continue to grow in the coming weeks and months, experts say. Congress is slated to return in September and while the political parties could hash out a deal then, they may likely feel less pressure to act with summer over, unless Zika becomes a larger public health problem. (Shutt, 7/14)
Republicans and Democrats can鈥檛 come together on a deal to fund the Zika response, but they are ready with talking points to blame one another if the crisis gets worse over the August recess. Minutes after a Republican-led Zika measure failed in the Senate for the second time on Thursday, Democrats blasted Republicans for leaving on a vacation as a public health crisis loomed. Republicans, with similar venom, blamed Democrats for filibustering a bill that would have helped prevent babies from severe birth defects. (Haberkorn, 7/14)
Top Republicans in Congress are demanding to know why the White House is holding onto more than $400 million that they say could have already gone to fighting the Zika virus. Six leading GOP appropriators wrote to President Obama on Thursday, voicing strong concerns about the administration's slow pace in exhausting its existing resources on Zika, as Democrats dig in their heels to demand a $1.1 billion emergency spending bill. (Ferris, 7/14)
Republican appropriators urged President Obama to use already available funding to respond to the Zika virus Thursday after Senate Democrats blocked a procedural vote on a spending bill that included funding for the virus for the second time. In a letter, top appropriators from both chambers urged Obama to continue to shift money that was allocated for fiscal 2016 for the Zika virus should the administration need more funds to fight the outbreak. The Secretary of Health and Human Services has a transfer authority to shift funds toward Zika and the Secretary of State has the authority to reprogram funds to provide additional funding outside the country, they say. (McIntire, 7/14)
