The White House requested emergency Zika funding in February and the request languished on Capitol Hill amid partisan warfare. | Getty Zika funding bill fails — again

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the GOP's $1.1 billion bill to pay for the nation’s Zika response, as lawmakers eye a must-pass federal funding bill as the next opportunity to approve money to fight the virus.

As expected, the Zika bill failed to overcome a procedural hurdle, 52-46. The same funding measures fell twice under similar margins in June and July.


The lack of funding is already hurting efforts to battle the mosquito-borne virus responsible for severe birth defects. A top Obama administration health official told POLITICO that progress on up to four possible Zika vaccines at the National Institutes of Health will have to stop if funding isn’t approved by the end of this month.

“If we do not get the new money by the start of the fiscal year, then all of the vaccine [work] will stop,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

The next opportunity to attach Zika funding to must-pass legislation, perhaps the only chance in the near future, will be the legislative package to fund government beyond Sept. 30.

“It’s probably … likely this will be in the end of the fiscal year wrap up,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol. “That would be my guess.”

Republicans in both the House and Senate are considering options to approve Zika funding, according to aides.

"Despite Senate Democrats’ obstruction of the House-passed $1.1 billion bill to fight Zika, we are confident resources will get approved in September,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Democrats blamed their rejection of the Zika bill on GOP riders. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid accused Republicans of “attacking Planned Parenthood” in the bill, which would not have provided funding for contraception. Another reason Democrats objected to the bill: It would allow the Confederate flag to be flown at Veterans Administration cemeteries.

“Nothing shows the Republicans’ partisanship on this issue more clearly than the fact that they abandoned a bill that passed with 89 votes in the Senate and loaded it up with poison pill riders to assuage the hard right,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), referring to overwhelming Senate support for an earlier version of funding legislation.

The White House requested emergency Zika funding in February and the request languished on Capitol Hill amid partisan warfare over the amount of funding and riders. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scheduled Tuesday's vote seven weeks ago, before the congressional recess and before transmission of the Zika virus spread to the continental United States, as health experts had predicted.

There are now 2,722 reported cases of Zika in the United States and 624 of them are pregnant women. The virus is wreaking havoc on Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories, where there are more than 14,000 cases, including nearly 1,000 in pregnant women.

After the virus was detected in several parts of Florida, both Republicans and Democrats in the Sunshine State — as well as Texas, where the virus is expected to travel — stepped up their calls for congressional action.

The legislation would have provided $1.1 billion to develop a Zika vaccine and to try to control the mosquito population. It is partially funded by cuts to Affordable Care Act programs.

“The Democrats need to wake up and vote the right way to get this passed because the money is running out for both killing the mosquitoes and the research needing to be done on the issue of the vaccine,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said before the vote.

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.