Senate GOP leaders are in talks to advance a major funding package to fight the Zika virus, marking the end of a months-long battle between the GOP and the White House.
“We’re happy a Zika supplemental is finally in play,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Md.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement to The Hill on Wednesday.
{mosads}”We’re in ongoing talks with Republicans, and it looks promising,” Mikulski said.
The Senate GOP’s efforts to approve funding for the Zika virus before the completion of this year’s appropriations process comes after a weeks-long dispute between administration officials and the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the leader of the Appropriations Committee’s health panel, said Wednesday he has been dissatisfied by the administration’s response, even after a conversation with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell earlier in the day.
“We need some really basic answers,” Cole told reporters in the Capitol. He said the administration’s initial request was “too broad” but that he will work to make sure they have what is needed. Read more here. http://bit.ly/1Swm5V3
HOUSE OPIOID BILL WON’T INCLUDE NEW FUNDING: First from The Hill — House GOP leaders plan to bypass a major debate over funding when they advance a major legislative package on opioids next month.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will bring up as many as eight bills to the House floor the first week of May as part of the House’s legislative response to the drug epidemic.
But none of those bills will include funding – a move that is likely to flare up a debate by House Democrats. Read more here: http://bit.ly/1rlDVOB
ANOTHER FEISTY FETAL TISSUE HEARING: House Republicans are pointing to new documents as evidence that Planned Parenthood illegally profited from the sale of fetal tissue, but Democrats say the documents are wildly misleading and were possibly obtained illegally.
The committee set up to investigate Planned Parenthood presented the documents at a hearing on Wednesday.
One document, labeled Exhibit B2, appears to tout an unidentified fetal tissue procurement company’s services to abortion clinics as “financially profitable” and “providing a financial benefit to your clinic.”
Republicans say the documents show illegal profits from fetal tissue sales.
Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said the documents highlight companies that want to make money “selling baby parts.”
Democrats, though, questioned the validity of the documents, saying it is unclear how they were obtained. Read more here. http://bit.ly/1YHEJrd
ON TAP TOMORROW
The House Bipartisan Task Force on Heroin Abuse will hold a press conference at 9 a.m. to announce support for 15 bills.
Supporters of the Obama administration’s contraception policy will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. on new briefs in the Zubik v. Burwell Supreme Court case
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) will deliver remarks at a briefing on tele-health hosted by the Children’s Health Fund at 8:30 a.m.
WHAT WE’RE READING
White Americans are dying younger as drug and alcohol abuse rises (New York Times)
ObamaCare seems to be reducing people’s medical debt (New York Times)
Cigna, Anthem not exiting ObamaCare, unlike United (Fox Business)
IN THE STATES
Iowa lawmakers approve plan to defund Planned Parenthood (KCCI Des Moines)
Michigan House Committee approves funding for Zika virus (CBS Local Detroit)
ICYMI FROM THE HILL:
Portman focuses on drug abuse epidemic in new ad http://bit.ly/1SudJKt
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