Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday said money to combat Zika should be ushered through the traditional appropriations process. | AP Photo Kevin McCarthy: No standalone emergency Zika bill

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday said money to combat Zika should not be delivered through an emergency supplemental spending bill, even as Democrats continued to demand swift action to combat the virus.

“I do believe the best place to deal with this is in the appropriation process,” the California Republican told reporters at a pen-and-pad briefing, referring to the annual process of passing 12 spending bills. “That’s where we will.”


Congressional Democratic leaders, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, have blasted Republicans for failing to pass supplement emergency funding to combat the spreading virus. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, for example, warned Monday of the increasing threat to the American public should Congress fail to provide funding, pointing to 500 confirmed cases of Zika discovered just south of Florida, in Puerto Rico.

“Experts tell us it won’t be long before mosquitoes carrying Zika are infecting people here in the continental United States,” he said on the Senate floor. “We can’t wait for that to happen before we act. This is an emergency situation.”

The Senate, he added, shouldn’t leave for the early-May recess until it has acted: “We can’t go on break without taking care of this emergency.”

A bipartisan group of senators has been working on a deal to address the virus, though Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said during a committee hearing last week that such a measure would likely be attached to appropriations.

“We’re working to find the right number at the right time,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who chairs the subcommittee that oversees Zika funding. “We’re close to a plan that we think could work … but I’d like a little more input from the administration.”

The deal is likely to fall far short of the $1.9 billion that President Barack Obama requested earlier this year — but Democrats say they are pushing for as much as they can, as quickly as possible.

Reid pounded a lectern emphatically on Tuesday to stress that, as of now, “there is no deal.”

“Before we talk about settling, let them bring something to the floor. Right now there is nothing before us,” Reid said.

It’s unclear what legislative vehicle a Zika deal would hitch a ride on. Republicans typically prefer to make such allocations in the annual spending bills, per McCarthy’s Tuesday statement. But it is unclear that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will be able to pass appropriations bills on the House floor given steadfast conservative opposition to spending levels.

There’s also a question of whether the money will be pinned as “emergency” spending, which allows appropriators to ignore budget caps that constrain other types of spending. McCarthy deferred on that question Monday. And he wouldn’t say whether the new spending would be offset, as conservative groups have demanded.

Instead, he pointed at the administration for failing to answer appropriators’ questions about how the money would be spent this and next year.

“You’re getting into all these what-ifs,” he said. “We want to be able to deal with this; we want a plan. Once those answers come back to us, we can put a plan together on what we need to combat this.”

Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.

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