Erin Kelly

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — After more than three months of fighting between the White House and Congress over emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, the Senate appears poised Tuesday to approve $1.1 billion for prevention and treatment programs to combat the mosquito-borne illness.

But the Senate compromise, which falls short of the $1.9 billion the White House is seeking, could be quickly derailed in the House. Republican House leaders introduced legislation Monday that would provide $622 million to combat Zika — about $1.3 billion less than federal health officials say they need. The House is expected to take up its bill this week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the disagreement over funding levels means that Zika will most likely hit the continental U.S. this summer while Congress is still haggling over money. So far, Americans living in the continental U.S. have acquired the virus only by traveling overseas to Caribbean and South American countries.

"This is beyond reckless," Reid said on the Senate floor Monday.

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the money House Republicans are offering is enough to take immediate action to stop the spread of Zika.

"This legislation will make dollars available to fight the disease now, prioritizing critical activities that must begin immediately, such as vaccine development and mosquito control," Rogers said in a statement Monday. "The legislation funds these efforts in a responsible way, using existing resources — including excess funding left over from the Ebola outbreak — to pay for it."

Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill is "completely insufficient."

"Without full funding, private sector work on vaccines and diagnostic testing will be delayed due to the lack of multi-year funding commitments," she said. "State and local public health emergency preparedness grants will be underfunded, hampering efforts to control mosquito populations...Pinching pennies on these basic investments will inevitably heighten costs — in dollars and lives — down the road."

The Senate is expected to act first, voting on at least three Zika amendments Tuesday. The first one to win 60 votes will be added to a package of two unrelated spending bills that Senate leaders are trying to pass quickly.

An amendment by Florida Sens. Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat, would provide the full $1.9 billion that President Obama wants, but it is unlikely to win enough Republican votes to pass. Another proposal, by Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, would provide $1.1 billion that would be offset by cuts to Obamacare's Prevention and Public Health Fund — an option that Democrats are sure to reject. A third amendment, by Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., would provide $1.1 billion without cutting any other programs. It is the most likely to pass.

"I am very encouraged that Democrats and Republicans will be able to come together with a strong step forward to help ensure families...across the country are prepared to respond to this emergency," Murray said.

The Zika virus poses the biggest threat to pregnant women or women who are planning to become pregnant. It has been linked to birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and incomplete brain development.

Four out of five people infected by Zika have no symptoms. Others typically have mild symptoms such as fever, a rash, headaches, joint pain, lack of energy and pink eye. However, a man in his 70s who was infected with Zika died in Puerto Rico in April of complications from the virus, making him the first U.S. death from the disease, health officials said.

The Obama administration, at the urging of congressional Republicans, is already using $589 million in unspent Ebola funds to fight Zika. However, public health officials have said much more is needed to pay for mosquito control efforts, public education programs, vaccine research and improving health care for low-income pregnant women.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Obama administration still believes that the full $1.9 billion in funding is needed to combat the Zika virus effectively, but he stopped short of saying that the president would veto a bill at the $1.1 billion level that the Senate is most likely to approve.

"The $1.9 billion number was not chosen at random — it actually reflects the sum total of efforts that our public health professionals say they can and should take over the long term to protect the American people from Zika," Earnest told reporters Friday. "So if there are some public health professionals in the United States Congress that have looked at this carefully enough to offer up their own alternative, they can do that. But $1.9 billion is what our public health professionals say that we need; $1.9 billion is what our bipartisan governors from all across the country believe that Congress should provide so that they can fight Zika in their communities."

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