WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the U.S. Senate overcame a procedural hurdle and voted 68-29 to invoke cloture on an amendment to provide $1.1 billion of emergency funding to stop the spread of the Zika virus and develop a vaccine.  The amount is less than the $1.9 billion President Obama asked for in February, and which U.S. Senator Jack Reed has been advocating for, but more than the $622.1 million that House Republicans are proposing.  After he helped advance the measure, Senator Reed, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement:

“The threat of the Zika virus is a serious public health issue and Congress must act to help minimize its spread before we have an epidemic on our hands.  It’s been nearly three months since the Administration asked for emergency funds for a comprehensive response to the Zika virus and to speed up development of a vaccine.  This should not be a partisan issue and inaction leaves us more susceptible to this serious public health emergency.

“Mosquito season is almost here and Congress must act to help prevent the Zika virus from spreading,” Reed continued.  “It is so critical that we move quickly on this so that our state and local health departments will have the resources they need to deal with a potential onslaught of cases in the coming months.  The funding that would be made available as a result of today’s votes will be critical in the efforts to prevent outbreaks of the disease in the United States, and hopefully the creation of a vaccine in the near future.”

Today’s vote brings the $1.1 billion Zika measure a procedural step closer to being added to an appropriations package that includes both the Transportation-HUD bill, which Senator Reed and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) are co-managing on the floor, and a Military Construction-Veterans (Milcon-VA) spending bill.  Although supporters of the emergency Zika funds have well over 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster, opponents of adding the funds are forcing the Senate to run through a full 30 hours of post-cloture debate.  Therefore, the next procedural move to advance the bill should occur on Thursday.

After the bill passes the full U.S. Senate it must then be reconciled with the version making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives.

Earlier this month, Senator Reed brought federal experts from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the CDC together with the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH), the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM), the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA), and local infectious disease experts for a meeting to discuss the state’s Zika education, prevention, and response action plan.