In Miami, Clinton to Call on Congress to Act on Zika Virus

WASHINGTON (AP) —
Samples of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, responsible for transmitting dengue and Zika, sit in a petri dish at the Fiocruz Institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
Samples of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, responsible for transmitting dengue and Zika, sit in a petri dish at the Fiocruz Institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

Hillary Clinton will call on Congress to return to Washington and pass emergency funding for the Zika response during a visit to a Miami neighborhood dealing with the first U.S. outbreak of the disease.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Democratic presidential candidate plans to tour the Borinquen Medical Center, a health clinic close to the Wynwood area where 16 non-travel related cases have been diagnosed. She will demand Republican leaders bring Congress back in session to either pass stalled legislation or craft a new bipartisan compromise bill to provide funding for testing, treatment and research on the disease, according to aides briefed on her plans.

Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, has already said he’d return to Washington for a vote on a Zika bill.

Until this month, the only known Zika cases in the United States were people who had recently traveled to Latin America and the Caribbean. Federal officials last week warned expectant women to avoid the Miami neighborhood and a 1-square-mile area around it.

Public health experts worry about the disease spreading: Florida health officials said on Monday they’re investigating a case of Zika virus infection in Palm Beach County that was likely contracted in the United States.

Lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion that President Barack Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus.

Both sides have been pointing fingers since.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has signaled he is in no rush to return. Writing in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader last week, he criticized Democrats for balking at passing the bill. He said they’ll get another chance after Labor Day when Congress is back in session.

Clinton supported the bill, which her policy aide Ann O’Leary called “a critical first step to protect public health and ultimately save lives,” in a post on the website Medium.

Clinton laid out a plan to combat the virus last March, which included allocating $1.8 billion in emergency funds. A month later, she dispatched two of her aides to Puerto Rico, where hundreds of cases have been detected, to meet with medical professionals.

“Zika is real. It’s dangerous. And if we’re serious about stopping this epidemic in its tracks, then there’s no time to waste,” Clinton wrote in a June op-ed in the Sun Sentinel.

To Read The Full Story

Are you already a subscriber?
Click to log in!