After three months of delays, the Senate has finally passed funding to combat the spread of Zika.
The Senate approved $1.1 billion in funding to fight the Zika virus Thursday, putting itself on a collision course with the House. [...]
The vote comes less than a day after the House approved $622 million in Zika funds, despite opposition from House Democrats, senators and the White House.
It’s not just that the two bills differ in the dollars attached. They’re completely different bills. The Senate’s $1.1 billion is attached to an unrelated spending bill which contains a number of controversial rule changes. The House bill is a bill about relaxing rules on pesticides—which has already picked up a promise of veto from the White House—with a new name attached. The money in the House bill isn’t actually a new allocation for Zika, it’s funds that the administration was previously using to fight ebola, but which have already been diverted to Zika after the legislature failed to act.
In fact, the Senate measure and the Obama request are fairly similar when it comes to how much money to spend on Zika; the main difference is that the president wants back the almost $600 million he diverted last month from the Ebola battle and other accounts. That money is being used to conduct research on the virus and Zika-related birth defects, create response teams to limit Zika’s spread, and help other countries fight the virus.
The difference between the $1.1 billion Senate bill and the House bill? About $1.1 billion. The Senate bill and House bill have almost nothing in common. The word “Zika” appears in them both. That’s about it. The House bill will advance as a stand-alone, the Senate bill as an amendment to a bill the House is yet to pick up. Procedurally this means … we may not be any closer to dealing with the issue at all.
Summer is coming.