Durbin Says Congress Must Not Wait To Approve Zika Funding
CHICAGO (CBS) -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin met with doctors in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss the Zika virus, and to urge Congress to approve funding to fight the disease.
Dr. Michael Angarone, an infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said research funded by the federal government would help him provide answers to patients bout Zika.
"How do we counsel our patients and these people that have all these questions that, in reality, we don't have many answers for?" he said after meeting with Durbin.
The senator said Congress should approve emergency funds to fight Zika within the next two weeks, before it recesses until September.
"The mosquitos are not going to wait. The Zika virus is not going to wait. Congress shouldn't wait either," he said.
Durbin balked at a move by Congressional Republicans to redirect money from other programs to pay for Zika, and said the proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives was loaded down with "political insults."
Democrats and Republicans have argued over a measure in the Zika funding bill that would limit funding for Planned Parenthood. Durbin said, four months after President Barack Obama asked for $1.9 billion to respond to Zika, Congress must act.
"There is a sense of urgency about it, and there's a sense of political peril about it. If you get this wrong, and your party ends up being blamed for it, you may pay a price in November," he said.
Zika is spread by mosquitos, and by sexual contact, and is known to cause severe birth defects.