Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that the House might still consider a special funding bill to combat the growing threat of the Zika virus, but he gave no promises he would agree to a $1.9 billion White House request.
“I’m not going to foreclose the appropriations options,” Ryan said.
Ryan told reporters at his weekly press conference that Republican lawmakers are still waiting for the Obama administration to answer questions sent weeks ago from Republican lawmakers about their funding request. The GOP says it still wants more details about how the money would be spent, and more precise estimates of how much is needed in the current fiscal year.
In the meantime, the federal government is moving to combat the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus with $590 million in funds left over from efforts to stop the spread of Ebola.
“This is something we take extremely seriously,” Ryan said. “We are going to stay on top of this.”
White House officials told the Washington Examiner that their Feb. 22 written funding request provides enough detail and signaled they don’t plan on responding to the GOP’s request for more information.
But House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said that without the requested information, both House and Senate appropriators “will work … to make our own determinations on what is needed and when, and to provide the funding that we believe is necessary and responsible.”
House Republicans have appeared to favor funding efforts to fight Zika in the fiscal year 2017 spending legislation, rather than through an emergency spending bill.
Supplemental funding bills fall outside of designated annual federal spending and can be excluded from spending caps, meaning they add to the deficit.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said if Republicans agree to a supplemental spending bill, Democrats will “absolutely” fight to include additional federal money to help Flint, Mich., deal with its lead water problem, and to help states combat opioid addiction.
