Overnight Healthcare: Zika fight enters new phase

House Republicans have introduced a bill that would provide $622 million in funding to fight the Zika virus this year, paid for by shifting funds that were intended to fight Ebola, reports The Hill.

Along with the House voting on the bill this week, the Senate is also moving forward with funding, but in the much larger amount of $1.1 billion.

With summer coming up, mosquitoes that bring the disease to the U.S. are fast approaching. The need for funding has Democrats increasing pressure on the GOP to act on the matter, although Republicans had previously stated that funding could wait until next year

"While we are reviewing the proposal, the funding level is less than one-third of the amount of the President's emergency request, and further depletes the ability of the U.S. to respond to the ongoing global threat of Ebola," said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif. "The growing threat of Zika demands passage of the President's full $1.9 billion supplemental now, not a woefully inadequate proposal tied to an appropriations bill that is six months away from the President's desk."

House Republicans said they did not act sooner because they were still waiting for answers on the details of where the funding would go. 

“Given the severity of the Zika crisis and the global health threat, we cannot afford to wait on the Administration any longer,” Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said in a statement. “We have made our own funding determinations, using what information is available and through discussions with federal agencies, to craft a proposal to fight the spread of this damaging disease.”