The U.S. Government is responding on several fronts to the outbreak of Zika, a virus primarily spread by mosquitoes that recently has been linked to birth defects and other concerning health conditions in parts of Latin America.

In early February, the Obama Administration sent Congress a request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding to combat Zika overseas and in the United States. The money would go to the Department of Health and Human Services and the State Department and its U.S. Agency for International Development. It would be used for preparedness efforts, mosquito control, vaccine research and development, testing and diagnostics, health care provider education, and improved services for low-income pregnant women, the most vulnerable group.

In Congress, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will soon take up H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, introduced by Representative Fred Upton (MI-R), which passed the House last year. The bill is designed to modernize and speed up the process from promising scientific discoveries to the development and availability of new treatments for health conditions, including rare diseases. The committee is also expected to consider S. 2512, introduced by Senator Al Franken (MN-D), which would add the Zika virus to the list of tropical diseases under the priority review voucher program, which awards a voucher to the sponsor of a new drug or biological product that is approved to prevent or treat a tropical disease. “The cost to complete product development and approval is a barrier,” said Senator Franken. “This is especially true when the product’s profit potential is low because the disease affects a small number of patients in low-income countries.”

Meanwhile, the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets recently held a hearing focused on travel guidelines for pregnant women and preparations by the U.S. Olympic Committee for handling the emerging virus in advance of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.

The outlook for passage of emergency funding has been complicated by a dispute over where the money should come from. House Speaker Paul Ryan (WI-R) has insisted that lawmakers must offset the cost of an emergency package, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Harold Rogers (KY-R) has said he would prefer that dollars left over from the amount allocated to fight the Ebola virus be redirected to Zika.

If funding for efforts to contain the virus is considered as standalone legislation, or as a rider to a Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bill, that could delay floor consideration until spring, which might be too late for an effective response to the outbreak — especially in warmer months that bring more mosquitoes.

For related background, see the December 2014 issue of Congressional Digest titled “Ebola Epidemic.”