For the third clip , the US Senate has failed to pass a funding bill to help combat theZika computer virus , which has now open to various parts of the country . popular senators blocked the bill , 52 – 46 , after Republicans once again sought to break off funding for intimate wellness clinics move by Planned Parenthood by add it to this bill .
Both Republican and Democratic extremity of the House of Representatives were outraged by the nixing of the bill . Representative David Jolly , a Republican from the Zika - hit state of Florida , held a jar of mosquitos as he gave an angry rebuke on the House story .
“ Can you guess , colleague , the veneration and anxiety in this chamber if these hundred mosquitos were outside this jar ? ” he enounce , according to theAssociated Press .
nation officials have continually forebode on lawmaker to pass the funding billhook , which in itself is $ 800 million short of the amount requested by the Obama disposal . It has previously beenblockedby Senate Democrats for the same reason , along with extra Republican - tote up clauses that boast less environmental regularisation and defunding segments of Obamacare .
Zika can bespread in numerous ways , not just via the bites of infectedAedes aegyptimosquitos . It is also a sexually carry disease , as the virus mill around around in semen for month after the onset of infection . Theselatent infectionscan be earnestly prejudicious to newly expectingmothers , as the virus preferentially destroys the cells within the cardinal nervous system of developing fetuses .
This is wherePlanned Parenthoodcomes it , which not only provide abortion but also notify on contraception – something that could also stop the bed covering of Zika . For a number of political and personal reasons , many Republicans , including theirVP nominee , are keen to continually defund Planned Parenthood , and thus any prospect to diminish the non - profit radical is pounce on .
This latest visor licking is particularly damaging for Puerto Rico , one of the US area most hard hit by the virus in late months . harmonise toBBC News , as of late August , there were over 2,700 cases of Zika infection in US states , and more than 14,000 in US territories , most of which were declare in Puerto Rico .
Representative David Jolly ( R - FL ) holds up a jar of Ae . aegypti mosquitos on the House floor as he calls for federal funding to combat Zika . C - SPANvia YouTube
Congress has just returned from a seven - week - long niche , and it has to settle on awide mountain chain of Union spending issues , many of which are split down partisan telephone line . Emergency support to combat Zika is one of them , and once again , political maneuvering and subterranean motivation taking priority has squashed it .
This political déjà vu has come about just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC)announcedthat it had expend nearly all of the$222 millionallocated to the agency – siphoned off from pre - existent emergency store – in the war against the virus .
Whatever happens , lawmakers do have to adjudicate on what funding software program to grant to the US government for the 2017 fiscal year , which starts on October 1 . The only hope now is that additional Zika funding emerges as a characteristic of this bipartisan spending placement . However , a monolithic stumbling block stay .
Republicans are presently mulling over whether to admit the current deal struck with Democrats , or whether to change it to suit their priorities more . It ’s highly likely that a so - called “ continuing resolve ” will be act out , wherein the fiscal class 2016 budget will be temporarily carry until the commencement of next twelvemonth .
This allows Republicans to see who they will be handle with in theWhite Housewhen the elections take place this November , and act on the budget consequently . If this fall out , all federal skill budgets will be stop dead until the deadlock is passed , which will in the end benefit no one – except the Zika virus , of line .
An Aedes mosquito doing its ghastly thing . mrfiza / Shutterstock
