Erin Kelly

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The House voted early Thursday to approve a bill to provide $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus, but Democrats vowed to derail the legislation in the Senate because it includes $750 million in budget cuts to other health care programs.

The House voted 239-171 to pass the bill at shortly after 3 a.m. as Democrats continued their unrelated "sit-in" on the House floor to push for a vote on gun control measures in the wake of the mass shootings in Orlando.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., pushed to get the Zika bill passed this week, before House members adjourned for a recess that will last through Independence Day. The House had been scheduled to work through Friday, but the Democrats' sit-in prompted them to adjourn early Thursday after voting on the Zika bill.

"Mosquito season is upon us; these dollars must get out the door now to help control the spread of the Zika virus, and continue longer-term efforts to stop this disease, such as vaccine and treatment development and deployment," Rogers said.

Democrats complained that they were left out of negotiations that took place between Republican members of a House-Senate conference committee that hammered out the deal on Zika funding and on larger spending bills to fund veterans' programs and military construction projects. House and Senate Republicans reached agreement on the deal late Wednesday

"Republicans’ promises of a constructive and inclusive appropriations process ring hollow," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The bill would cut $543 million in unused funds from the implementation of Obamacare, $107 million from leftover funds used to fight Ebola, and $100 million in administrative funds from the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats also were angered by a provision that would block supplemental funds from going to Planned Parenthood for birth control services for women at risk of becoming infected with the Zika virus.

The legislation needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate, where Republicans have a 54-vote majority. The Senate is in session for another week and is expected to take up the bill before it leaves for its Fourth of July recess.

"If Republicans think the way to respond to this virus is to restrict access to contraception, play politics with Planned Parenthood riders, cut the Affordable Care Act and take even more funding from the ongoing fight against Ebola, then they’re not listening to scientists, they’re not listening to doctors, and they’re not listening to their constituents," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the senior Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds health programs.

President Obama asked Congress in February to provide $1.9 billion to fight the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness that can cause devastating birth defects.

The Senate passed compromise legislation in May to provide $1.1 billion in funding. Unlike the conference committee proposal, it did not require any budget cuts to fund it. The House passed a bill last month to provide $622 million in funding, drawing a veto threat from the White House, which called it woefully inadequate.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the bill passed Thursday represents "important progress in our efforts to protect Americans from the Zika virus."

The legislation provides $230 million for the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine and $476 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help pay for mosquito control efforts.

"With this additional funding — on top of what we have already allocated — the administration will continue to have the needed resources to address the Zika threat," Ryan said.

The White House disagreed.

"While we are still awaiting more details on the legislation, 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," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "This plan from congressional Republicans is four months late and nearly a billion dollars short of what our public health experts have said is necessary to do everything possible to fight the Zika virus and steals funding from other health priorities."

House passes a fraction of Zika funding White House requested