Last week congressional Republicans signaled that they would not move with any urgency to pass a funding measure to fight the Zika virus, saying that they would rather review the president's funding request during the appropriations process.
That plan broke down because there is no appropriations process. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced that Republicans will not release a budget this year and do not intend to go through the appropriations process to fund the government.
It's possible, though not likely, that Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnnel could change their mind and begin the process at some point, but House Republicans have now officially ruled out granting the president's funding request for the time being.
GOP leaders, led by Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), told the administration on Thursday that they should first use the money left over from the government’s emergency Ebola response before seeking new funding. [...]
The GOP appropriators said in their letter they would be willing to consider replacing that Zika funding as part of this fall’s appropriations process, “but if an urgent response is what is required, then it seems clear that substantial funds are already available without any further delay.”
Speaker Ryan previously said Congress would quickly respond to the Zika virus in a bipartisan fashion, but that plan appears to have also broken down.
For their part, the White House says funding allocated to fight the Ebola virus should not be redirected because it's still being used to "follow through."
This would be a good time to point out that the Summer Olympics are not very far off and the games will take place in Brazil at the epicenter of the outbreak.