WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the House of Representatives will try to pass legislation this week providing $622.1 million in emergency funds to fight the spreading Zika virus, far less than the Obama administration has been seeking.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers introduced the measure on Monday, according to a statement. The bill would offset the new spending by taking $352.1 million from an Ebola fund and another $270 million from a Department of Health and Human Services administrative account.
The Obama administration and health officials have expressed concerns in the past with taking money from Ebola programs to pay for Zika virus efforts.
President Barack Obama in February called for $1.9 billion in emergency funds that would not result in any government spending cuts elsewhere.
The House bill is also at odds with legislation being debated in the Senate. Competing proposals there would either give Obama the full $1.9 billion or at least $1.1 billion.
The Senate is expected to cast initial votes on the alternatives on Tuesday.
If the House and Senate approve competing versions they would have to reconcile their differences and pass one uniform bill before sending it to Obama for signing into law.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to severe birth defects and other neurological disorders and is beginning to show up in warm climates in U.S. southern states such as Florida.
Of the $622.1 million proposed by House Republicans, $230 million would go to the National Institutes of Health to help support the development of vaccines to stop the spread of Zika.
Other funds would be contributed to global health programs, through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, and for the development of rapid diagnostic tests.
(Reporting By Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernard Orr)
On the heels of the United Nations saying it lacked the resources necessary to stop the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, President Obama is asking Congress for billions in aid to fight the killer virus.
The President wants $6.18 billion to fund efforts both within the U.S. and in Africa to combat the virus.
“The funding is needed immediately to strengthen and sustain our whole-of-government response to strengthen preparedness in the U.S. and to help end the Ebola epidemic at its source in West Africa, and to prevent disease outbreaks, detect them early, and swiftly respond before they become epidemics that threaten the American people,” the administration said. “It’s in situations like this one, when activities surpass the current level of funding, that the request is deemed an emergency.”
The World Health Organization reported Wednesday that the death toll is at least 4,818 people out of 13,042 confirmed cases.
The head of the U.N. mission fighting the virus said there are still villages in the impacted countries that have received no aid or help from outside their nation.
“It’s not here yet,” Tony Banbury said about the needed resources. “There are still people, villages, towns [and] areas that [are] not getting any type of help right now and we definitely don’t have the response capability on the ground now from the international community.”
While the leaders of Pakistan were using a blasphemy law to persecute Christians and keep a Christian mother jailed on false charges, the United States was giving the Pakistani government over $7.5 billion.
The American Center for Law and Justice is now calling for the United States to end financial aid to countries that persecute religious minorities.
“We must stop sending billions of our taxpayer dollars to nations that persecute Christians. It’s that simple. Not one more dime for persecution. Cut off American foreign aid to any country that persecutes Christians,” a petition started by the ACLJ reads. “As a wave of persecution sweeps across the Middle East — and Christians flee for their lives — it’s time for the money to stop. Already there is growing support for basic human rights and basic common sense on Capitol Hill.”
The focus of the petition is Asia Bibi, a Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy by Muslims who were upset she took a drink of water from a bowl they wanted to use to drink.
Bibi’s death sentence for blasphemy is now in the hands of the country’s supreme court.
Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, wrote that the Gates Foundation had decided not to fund abortions anywhere in the world.
“I understand why there is so much emotion,” Gates wrote, “Conflating these issues will slow down progress for tens of millions of women. That is why I when I get asked [about] my views on abortion I say that like everyone, I struggle with the issue, but I’ve decided not to engage on it publicly and the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion.”
Gates also reiterated her position during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper when journalists focused on the abortion issue. Canada’s wide-open abortion policy has virtually no limits on how a woman may end her child’s life via abortion.
Pro-abortion groups attacked Gates, saying that her actions were “stigmatizing abortion.” The groups also attacked Gates saying that because she and the Foundation do not support abortion, it causes women around the world to die when it wouldn’t happen if they funded abortion services.
The Gates Foundation includes a Global Health Initiative aimed at advancing health and sciences in developing nations.
A new report from Fox News shows that billionaire Warren Buffett has given enough money to abortion organizations to pay for roughly 2.7 million first-trimester abortions.
The man called the “Oracle of Omaha” has given over $1.2 billion to pro-abortion groups from 2001 to 2012.
Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center says that it’s shocking the lack of attention which has been given to the massive amount of funding for abortion from Buffett. Gainor said that if the third richest man in the world paid to have 2.7 million people killed, it would be major world news. However, since it’s babies via abortion, the news is not reported in the mainstream media.
Buffett has reportedly given almost $290 million to Planned Parenhood. Buffett’s first wife Susan was a major abortion advocate and he funds a foundation in her name headed by a woman who called abortion “a moral action undertaken by moral agents.”
Gainor says that it’s not just the media identified as liberally-leaning that’s been contributing to the blackout concerning news surrounding Buffett’s massive abortion support. Gainor said that Lila Rose of the anti-abortion group Live Action and Project Veritas filmmaker James O’Keefe failed to mention Buffett’s support of Planned Parenthood in their sting videos showing the group setting up underage abortions.
