It's Thursday, May 19 and Day 96 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 64 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
They'll be having more fights over Zika, which still isn't going to get adequate funding. On Wednesday, Democrats forced the issue.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) took to the floor Wednesday to argue that the larger bill could easily get tied up in Congress’ dysfunctional process, and be stalled until the fall — well after the money will be needed. The Zika spending should be broken out, they argued.
“As the weather warms, the mosquitoes will multiply and people will be bitten by these vicious little insects,” Reid said. “The appropriations process — to say it is slow is a gross understatement. We need to get this done now.” […]
“So how are we going to take these things to conference when the House can’t even come up with a budget?” Reid said, tweaking Ryan for his inability to get his members in line behind even a basic annual fiscal blueprint.
They were trying to get the bills on the floor with unanimous consent—a procedure that bypasses procedural votes—and failed when Sen. John Cornyn (R-T), Mitch McConnell's deputy, objected. He insisted that they agree to includes his language which strips money from an Obamacare preventative care fund to pay for Zika, which is of course unacceptable to Democrats. And stupid. So the proposals will get stand alone votes today, and they’ll fail.
The upshot? Republicans are not going to fund Zika prevention before it becomes a bigger crisis as mosquitoes invade the country.
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