As the Zika virus encroaches on the Southern United States, Congress continues to do nothing to prevent its spread. In addition to mosquito-borne cases of the illness being reported in three U.S. territories, it was discovered that local mosquitoes were transmitting the disease in Florida. As of last Wednesday, the total number of confirmed cases — travel-related and locally-acquired — throughout the U.S., American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands is over 18,000. Experts agree that prevention research and community education is fundamental to stopping the widespread outbreak.
A public health crisis seems like a bipartisan issue; however, when the Senate attempted to pass Zika legislation, Republicans objected to the $1.1 billion in research funding. House Republicans refused to vote for the bill unless Democrats agreed to their provisions, which included protecting the right to display the Confederate flag in military cemeteries and reducing funding for the Clean Water Act and Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood provides critical reproductive health resources — resources that far-right Republicans desire to withhold during an outbreak of a virus that can be sexually transmitted and is known to cause severe birth defects such as microcephaly.
Democrats opposed the far-right stipulations, and, when put to a vote, the bill failed to pass. According to The Huffington Post, the lack of Congressional funding has seriously impacted health agencies’ research, including “delaying vaccine development efforts.”
It's been so frustrating that for months & months - Republican leaders have been unwilling to get this done #DoYourJob pic.twitter.com/1fN9CWRygH
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) September 14, 2016
Senate Democrats continue to voice outrage at the conservatives' priorities. So far very little progress has been made to combat the spread of Zika in the U.S.; if Congress were any more stagnant, it'd probably be a breeding ground for virus-toting mosquitoes. As the number of confirmed cases increases, the American public and the government must take action to prevent an upsurge of infections.
