Obama, Senate Democrats urge Zika funding vote as reserves run low

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Politics | Thu Aug 4, 2016 9:14pm EDT

Obama, Senate Democrats urge Zika funding vote as reserves run low

WASHINGTON | BY DAVID MORGAN AND AYESHA RASCOE

President Barack Obama on Thursday said it was time for Congress to lay aside politics and to act to provide additional money to combat the Zika virus before government funding dries up.

"Our experts at the CDC, the folks on the front lines have been doing their best in making due by moving funds from other areas, but now the money we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out," Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon.

He warned that development of a vaccine for the virus could be delayed if Congress does not provide any more money and urged Americans to contact lawmakers to pressure them to take up the issue.

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Forty-one Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urging them to summon lawmakers back from their summer recess to vote on emergency funding to fight the virus.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-usa-congress-idUSKCN10F2E8

LBN thread: As Zika fears escalate, lawmakers point fingers from afar

[Old and In the Way]

1. Republicans need to stop playing politics on issues of live and death.

No more poison pills to further their social agenda when lives are at stake.