While Democratic members of Congress built a pillow fort on the floor of the House to oppose gun rights, the Republicans continued their work on behalf of the American people.
At about 1 am on Thursday, while drowned out by cries of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” from Democrats and partially blocked from C-SPAN’s cameras by protest signs, Ryan held some procedural votes on when the House would reconvene to vote on emergency funding to address the Zika virus. The votes were held at 2:30 am, and the Zika bill passed.
The need for a robust response to Zika is becoming more evident each day, as reports of more outbreaks in this country continue to mount.
In the Dallas area, ten pregnant women are showing signs of being infected with the pathogen (which can cause significant birth defects).
Dallas County Health and Human Services said Tuesday that there are nearly a dozen total cases in North Texas, CBS Dallas-Fort Worth reported, but none were contracted in the U.S….The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will not confirm any diagnosis publicly until after the babies are born. The federal health agency confirmed in April that the Zika virus can cause a birth defect called microcephaly — an underdeveloped brain at birth. It’s the first time in history a virus transmitted by mosquito bite has been found to cause birth defects.
From Ohio comes a report of its first case of sexually transmitted Zika:
A 61-year-old Lucas County woman infected with Zika virus by her husband is the state’s first sexually-transmitted case of the mosquito-borne virus.The woman’s husband traveled to a country with active Zika transmission, according to a release from the Ohio Department of Health. It’s the state’s 15th travel-associated case, and the woman’s husband’s case brings the state total to 16.
Furthermore, scientists have just discovered that people previously stricken with Dengue fever (which has plagued Hawaii recently) are more vulnerable to Zika.
However, despite the increasing evidence that this nation is facing an unprecedented public health crisis, President Obama is threatening the bill with his mighty pen:
The White House Thursday promised that President Barack Obama would veto the long-delayed response of the Republican-controlled Congress to the president’s request for fighting the Zika virus, saying it provided too little money and contained too many partisan provisions.The $1.1 billion measure had already appeared sure to die in the Senate next at the hands of filibustering Democrats backing Obama’s $1.9 billion request and opposing spending cuts that House Republicans added to the measure.
Trims to the Obamacare and Planned Parenthood budgets are the terms angering the Democrats:
The bill would cut $543 million in unused funds from the implementation of Obamacare, $107 million from leftover funds used to fight Ebola, and $100 million in administrative funds from the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats also were angered by a provision that would block supplemental funds from going to Planned Parenthood for birth control services for women at risk of becoming infected with the Zika virus.
The bill that passed set aside $230 million for the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine and $476 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help pay for mosquito control efforts. In other words, Obama will veto the Zika funding bill because it focuses too much on mosquito control and not enough on progressive special interests.
Yep…that sounds about right.
It is deeply disturbing that in an era when America is again facing the specter of an insect-spread epidemic, the Democrats are more interested in gun control than mosquito control.
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