157 Days. . . And Still, Congress Has Not Acted
The President requested emergency funding to fight Zika on Feb. 22. Now the virus is starting to spread.
This just in from the Washington Post:
“Florida officials on Friday announced the first local spread of Zika virus through infected mosquitoes in the continental United States.
“Gov. Rick Scott made the announcement during a press conference Friday after a health department investigation into four suspected cases in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.”
On Wednesday, the FDA directed South Florida blood banks to stop accepting blood donations until they can be tested for the virus.
President Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funding to fight Zika on February 22. According to a website that’s tracking the time, that was 157 days and 17 hours ago. Congress has done nothing.
Which will come first, congressional funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus? Or the first American baby with microcephaly due to the virus?
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About Dan
Dan Farber has written and taught on environmental and constitutional law as well as about contracts, jurisprudence and legislation. Currently at Berkeley Law, he has al…
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Congress has acted, it just hasn’t produced a bill. According to valid news reports, a bill was ready to go that contained funding, but Democrats blocked or over objections to other provisions.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/zika-politics-congress-224857
J ADLER- Any particular reason you didn’t bother to mention what said “other provisions” it was that the Republicans added in order to ensure objection by the Democrats? What, pray tell, does stripping Planned Parenthood of funding and/or flying the Confederate Flag at funerals, among other outrageous “other provisions” have to do with FUNDING the FIGHT against the SPREAD OF ZIKA?? How “pro-life” is it to use politics in this instance, when it is a known scientific fact that babies will now be born with horrific, irreversible birth defects? Nevermind. ALL of the “pro-life” nonsense speaks for itself.
Dan, I want to Thank You and your LP colleagues for fighting for our quality of life.
Tragically, all you appear to be accomplishing is the documentation of the destructive consequences of global warming that are out of control, while all other professors refuse to join you in your lonely battle for our survival.
Global warming, and our current 2016 presidential election campaigns, keep proving that humans are the most destructive animals on the planet.
Too bad evolution didn’t stop with the apes, at least the planet would have been livable for millions of years longer.