The efforts to keep government functions running despite Republican inaction continue.
The Obama administration plans to reallocate $81 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the Zika virus, according to a letter sent Thursday by HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell.
Fighting a virus outbreak that is already killing Americans is not optional; the number of pregnant women in the United States who have been infected by the virus, which can cause microcephaly, reduced brain development or death, is now nearing 1,000.
Last week, Burwell informed Congress that those two agencies were expected to run out of money by the end of August to fight the spread of the mosquito-borne disease. She warned that NIH would be forced to delay vaccine development without the funds. Burwell estimates that those two programs alone would need $538 million over the coming year. [...]
On Thursday Burwell said that the shifting of funds was a last-ditch effort. “With the actions described above, we have exhausted our ability to even provide short-term financing to help fight Zika,” she wrote.
Republicans continue to resist calls to return from their recess to respond to the health emergency—a move that was swiftly made when Republicans considered the legal battles around Terri Schiavo to a health emergency, but has yet to be made here despite Zika infections in the U.S. topping 7,000. The only previous move to allocate funds was loaded with multiple "poison pill" amendments targeting environmental regulations and, of course, Planned Parenthood.
As for why Republicans are so conspicuously unconcerned with a virus that does its worst harm to developing fetuses, we can only guess.