As November draws near, record breaking numbers of Americans are dissatisfied with the major parties’ presidential candidates. However, there is at least one group of Americans who appreciate and embrace the chaos of the current campaign cycle — members of the United States Congress. Donald Trump’s effect on down ballot races has Democratic senators giddy with the prospects of winning back the Senate; they stand a 60 percent chance, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats alike are relieved to finally be all but out of the political spotlight after years of stories of incompetency in Washington dominating the headlines.
Don’t be deceived, though. Congress remains as dysfunctional as ever, even if its gridlock has been temporarily eclipsed in the media by Trump and Hillary Clinton. If you don’t believe me, tune into C-SPAN for a recap of the Senate proceedings. A vote for a proposed Zika emergency funding package was a case study in how to prioritize party politics over the health and safety of American citizens.
The current Zika outbreak started in Brazil in March 2015. In February 2016, as the virus continued to spread across the Americas, the World Health Organization declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. From the beginning, experts agreed that eventually the virus would land in the U.S., with the Gulf Coast a likely epicenter. President Barack Obama promptly requested that Congress allocate $1.9 billion in emergency funding to provide health care workers with the tools “needed to prevent, detect, and respond to the Zika virus and its serious associated health effects.” To put this in context, a similar request for $5.4 billion was approved a few years ago to combat Ebola.
This time around, however, rather than responding quickly and efficiently to an issue that has bipartisan support, Congress has elected to play another round of its favorite game: chicken. You know the one — Republicans and Democrats take turns planting ridiculously partisan addenda in otherwise uncontroversial bills, daring the other side to blink as disaster looms ever larger.
In this case, after failing to approve President Obama’s February request before its seven-week summer recess, the Senate finally scheduled a vote on a $1.1 billion proposal. But by making the proposal contingent on excluding Planned Parenthood from the list of providers that will receive funds to provide contraception to fight the spread of Zika, which can be sexually transmitted, Republicans have once again politicized a non-political issue. In so doing, they dared Senate Democrats to choose between abandoning their fight for women’s health issues or letting Zika funds dry up right as it reaches American borders.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest put it this way: “It is clear that once again, Republicans have put political games ahead of the health and safety of the American people, particularly pregnant women and their babies.” As expected, Democrats balked at the absurd addendum, the 52-46 vote fell short of the 60 votes required to pass the proposal, and now the game of chicken continues, close to seven months after President Obama’s “emergency” request.
The situation is growing more urgent by the day, as officials recently reported that mosquitoes are now transmitting Zika in Florida. Ongoing efforts to reduce mosquito populations in the state by using aerial sprays have been surprisingly successful, and the race to develop an effective vaccine is showing similar promise. However, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently warned that without an imminent influx of funding, these essential programs will be brought to a screeching halt in the next few weeks. This would risk allowing Zika to establish a foothold in the Gulf Coast and beyond. Now is not the time to let effective programs fall prey to petty party politics. Now is the time to stop Zika’s spread before it becomes unmanageable.
So Senators Lee and Hatch, and Representatives Chaffetz, Love, Bishop and Stewart: if you’re reading this (I’m looking at you, U alum Representative Bishop), please listen to the pleas of a frustrated second-year medical student and Utah voter, talk some sense into your peers, put politics aside just this once and get this legislation done. The health of millions of Americans demands your immediate action.
References
https://www.whitehouse.gov/zika
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/us/politics/zika-congress-emergency-funding.html
http://www.nature.com/news/don-t-redirect-ebola-cash-to-zika-vaccines-1.20511
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/the-race-for-a-zika-vaccine