Back in February, the White House proposal $1.9 billion in funding to help contain the rapid spread of the virus. Since then, Republicans have largely refused to act, even as it began to spread in the United States.
Last week, Republicans in the Senate finally reached a compromise with Democrats to approve $1.1 billion to address the Zika crisis, but their colleagues in the House seem to think even that figure is far too much.
Their counter-offer, released on Monday, instead reallocates $662 million that is currently being used to fight Ebola in West Africa to address Zika instead. On top of that, Republicans have rebranded a completely unrelated bill that would strip the EPA of some of its regulatory authority over pesticides as the Zika Vector Control Act.
To recap, House Republicans’ plan to fight the Zika virus is to stop fighting Ebola, provide a fraction of the funding needed, and allow polluters to dump pesticides wherever they please with no oversight.