Democratic officials are saying Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in private, is essentially conceding that Senate Republicans are ready to scrap language affecting Planned Parenthood. | AP Photo Senate nears Zika funding breakthrough

Senate leaders may be nearing a truce in the ideological battle over Planned Parenthood that's crippled Congress’ response to the Zika virus.

Senior senators and aides said Thursday that the main impediment to a $1.1 billion bill to combat the virus — a fight over which health centers in Puerto Rico can use Zika funding — is likely to be dropped from the debate. That would allow the Zika money to more easily be tucked into a government funding bill that must pass by the end of the month to avoid a government shutdown. The House would remain a major hurdle, however: Republicans in that chamber are warning that they have a harder line against any funding that includes Planned Parenthood.


In an interview, No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn of Texas said a partisan standoff over Planned Parenthood is “not the goal.” The House-passed Zika bill contains language interpreted by Democrats as restricting funding for Planned Parenthood, and Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked the bill over the matter.

“The goal is to get money to pay for the Zika issue,” said Cornyn, whose state's climate makes it particularly susceptible to mosquito-borne diseases. “So if we can agree to postpone our additional debates about taxpayer funding for abortions and Planned Parenthood to a later time, I don’t see any overwhelming obstacle to get a solution on the Zika.”

Or, as put by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), if Republicans are “dumb enough to keep it in there, they’re dumb.”

“What I’ve seen in my conversations and with Cornyn’s very public statements about [the issue is that] he would guarantee or promise we would get something done by the end of the year,” Reid said on Thursday. “It appears to me they’re going to have to give up some of their crazy stuff like Planned Parenthood. That’s the No. 1 thing. They’re going to have to find a new horse to whip.”

Reid said he’d received no concrete assurance from Republicans. But two senior Senate Democratic officials said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in private, is essentially conceding that Senate Republicans are ready to scrap language affecting Planned Parenthood.

Senior GOP officials said senators are merely discussing the matter. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said McConnell has been “indirect” in suggesting a way forward without a fight over women’s health care.

"It's our insistence that any short-term [continuing resolution] include Zika and what we call the clean Zika bill, and they understand that,” Durbin said.

Democrats have listed several other provisions they find objectionable, including a relaxation of restrictions on pesticide spraying and the absence of a ban on Confederate flags at some Veterans Affairs cemeteries. But Republicans are optimistic that those can be more easily resolved once the standoff over Planned Parenthood is removed. Durbin said “there may be a way to moderate” the pesticide discussion.

But the text of the rider is so vague that even the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, in a recent report obtained by POLITICO, says it's not clear whether Planned Parenthood would actually be excluded. The report says that public health departments might be able to use the funding to work with Planned Parenthood.

“It is not clear whether public health departments or hospitals could subcontract with Planned Parenthood or other entities, but the controversy surrounding the purposes of these funds may make states or territories hesitant to do so regardless,” the report says. "It might be possible for some states or territories to provide these funds to Planned Parenthood affiliated health centers that are eligible providers in a public health plan, such as Medicaid."

Planned Parenthood believes that ProFamilias, a health care provider in Puerto Rico that is an international partner organization, would not be able to access the funding in the Zika package if the restriction stands. That’s because ProFamilias doesn’t participate in Medicaid, which may have allowed it to get some of the funding, according to CRS.

The legislation “excludes qualified providers, like ProFamilias in Puerto Rico, simply because of their affiliation with the International Planned Parenthood Federation,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement.

Whether the House will go along is another matter entirely. House Republicans will gather on Friday morning to discuss the path forward on the spending bill and Zika, and conservatives in the chamber may not go along with Senate Republicans’ deal-making.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) suggested the entire debate is contrived and that the House may be less flexible than the Senate.

“There is no Planned Parenthood in this bill. To put an earmark for Planned Parenthood is something that we won’t do,” Ryan said Thursday.

Other Republicans are more adamant that any language that includes Planned Parenthood is a non-starter.

“This one group is like waving a red flag in front of our members’ faces,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), one of the lead negotiators on Zika funding in the House, told POLITICO. Democrats “would feel the same way if we were doing something and we said, the [National Rifle Association] can get part of this money, right? That’s the equivalent. … We’re not trying to get them to swallow the NRA. They shouldn’t try to make us swallow Planned Parenthood.”

Votes on the matter are at least a week away as senators and aides work out a deal.



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