House Dems eye Zika funding as chance for Flint

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she will push GOP leaders to include funding for Flint, Mich., in the emergency Zika funding bill that the Senate is working on.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters she would “absolutely” push the Zika funding bill to cover for public health crises like the lead water poisoning in Flint or the national opioid epidemic.

{mosads}“If there were a supplemental, I would imagine — we would fight to have Zika, Flint, and also the opioids,” she said.

The push for more Flint and opioids funding could complicate the bipartisan effort in the Senate to approve emergency funding to speed up the nation’s response to the Zika virus. The virus is linked to birth defects in infants and is expected to begin spreading in the southern U.S. in early June.

GOP leaders who said for the first time this week they would support some Zika funding. The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee announced Thursday he is planning to bring a major funding package for the Zika virus to the Senate floor “in the near future.”

Democratic senators working on the bill have said a deal is within reach, and they are hoping for passage as early as this month, tacked onto a separate appropriations bill.

The move would break a months-long gridlock over Zika virus funding between the White House and GOP leaders, who have accused federal officials for failing to provide a detailed breakdown of their funding needs.

But that effort could be significantly slowed by a new battle over opioids or Flint funding. Funding for Flint, in particular, has been a major point of disagreement in both the House and the Senate for months.

Pelosi could have some leverage in the House, however, if Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) fails to rally 218 Republican votes on the emergency funding package.