Deal on Zika funding reached by congressional negotiators

Congressional negotiators agreed Wednesday to a package that posts $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause serious birth defect in infants born to infected mothers.

Leading Democrats are blasting the deal spearheaded by Republicans, which pays for $750 million of the funding through existing federal accounts.

President Obama had requested $1.9 billion in emergency spending to speed the pursuit of a vaccine and better diagnostic test for Zika, while bolstering local mosquito control efforts.

He submitted his request in February, but GOP leaders were skeptical about the amount, how it would be spent and why the administration hadn’t searched for spending offsets elsewhere in the massive federal budget.

Instead of granting his request, congressional negotiators melded a House plan that would take $622 million from the lingering fight against Ebola in West Africa and other health accounts with a Senate plan that posts $1.1 billion without paying for it with cuts elsewhere in the federal budget.

The resulting package provides funding for community centers but not Planned Parenthood, much to the consternation of Democrats who had backed Mr. Obama’s full request.

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“We waited four months for Republicans to do anything to combat Zika. Their proposal would be comical except this a public health emergency and it deserves urgency,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said.

The Zika outbreak is centered in South America, particularly in Brazil, where doctors have noted a link between the disease and an uptick in babies born with abnormally small heads, a condition known as microcephaly.

The Centers for Disease Control has recorded more than 750 travel-related cases of Zika in the 50 states and D.C., a handful of them through sexual transmission, though experts say the virus could puncture the mainland further once summer ramps up and Aedes mosquitoes flourish.

So far, three babies have been born in the U.S. with birth defects that resulted from Zika infections, according to the CDC.