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The Obama administration has been urging Congress to come up with nearly $2 billion dollars in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus. Wednesday, it announced that it's transferring leftover money from the recent fight against Ebola. (April 6) AP
In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, an Aedes aegypti mosquito is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil.(Photo: Felipe Dana, AP)
WASHINGTON<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— The Obama administration will move $510 million in unspent money dedicated to battling last year's global public health crisis<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— the Ebola virus — toward this year's global public health crisis: the Zika virus.
But the White House also made clear that the United States needs to be able to address both Ebola and Zika, and called on Congress to act immediately on its $1.9 billion request to battle Zika.
"These efforts need to continue, and they can't<span style="color: Red;">*</span>be stopped or short-changed," said Health and Human Services Director Sylvia Burwell. "We have two global public health crises, Ebola and Zika, and we can't set one aside to deal with the other."
There have been 312 travel-related cases of Zika in the continental United States as of March 30, according to the Centers for Disease Control. None have been confirmed to involve the spread of Zika to someone who has not traveled outside the United States.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>But there have been another 352 cases in the territories of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, where the disease is spreading by local mosquitoes.
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Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom on Tuesday declared that "an international outbreak of the Zika virus is sustained, severe, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is spreading internationally, and that it is in the national interest to respond to the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>related public health emergency of international concern." Under a spending bill already passed by Congress, that language allows the administration to move money previously devoted to Ebola.
The White House did not immediately disclose to Congress how it would use the money.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The administration has previously requested funding for mosquito control, diagnostic tests, lab capacity and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>vaccine research and development.
The administration also would not say which specific<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ebola-related activities it would have to put on hold.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
"I will note that this is not all of the available Ebola money. We cannot take our eye off the ball when it comes to Ebola," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>lot of our Ebola funding and our efforts to fight Ebola were actually focused on improving public health infrastructures."
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said he was pleased that the administration had found<span style="color: Red;">*</span>existing funds to battle Zika, put promised oversight "to ensure the best and most effective use of these funds."
he administration said it has already moved $79 million in unspecified other funds to battle Zika. But the total of $589 million in existing funding still falls far short of the $1.9<span style="color: Red;">*</span>billion in emergency funding the White House had requested in February.
"I want to be very clear that our $1.9 billion request remains our $1.9 billion request,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan said. He said the administration<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will need to replenish the money borrowed from the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ebola fight.
The White House had previously resisted moving Ebola funds, warning that Ebola had been thought to be<span style="color: Red;">*</span>contained before — only to re-emerge.
Republicans in Congress, however, have insisted that the administration use money already at its disposal before asking Congress for more.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., applauded the White House's decision to do that. Zika, he said, "represents a growing health threat to Florida and the country so I’m hopeful this targeted funding will help stop its spread.”
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