Senators blocked dueling proposals funding a response to the Zika virus for the second time this week with days left before lawmakers leave for a recess that lasts until September.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) tried to bring up the $1.1 billion deal spearheaded by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected.
{mosads}The Kentucky Republican, in turn, tried to bring up a GOP-supported conference report, but Nelson objected.
“Now here we are in the same old political games,” Nelson said from the Senate floor. “If Senator McConnell had a flood or an earthquake in Kentucky, we would all support him with emergency funding to meet that emergency.”
Though the conference report, which passed the House late last month, also provides $1.1 billion to fight the mosquito-borne virus, Democrats oppose how it’s paid for and a provision blocking funding for Planned Parenthood.
Democrats are demanding that McConnell re-pass the Senate’s Blunt-Murray agreement, which has gotten backlash from House Republicans because the Zika money isn’t paid for.
McConnell fired back that “who is playing political games is in the eye of the beholder.”
“As a practical matter, if we were to repass the Senate bill it would not pass the House,” he added.
The rhetorical battle on the floor comes after McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blocked the competing Zika proposals on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon. Senators have days to try to break the stalemate until they leave town until after Labor Day.
McConnell has pledged to bring up the House-passed conference report for a second vote this week, though Democrats are showing no signs of caving in the fight. The White House has also pledged to veto the measure if it reaches President Obama’s desk.
Reid blasted the GOP strategy on Zika as well as a separate fight on opioid abuse, saying they would face political consequences in November.
“The Republicans are going to lose the majority of the United States Senate,” he said Tuesday. “All you have to do is listen to what the Republican leader had to say today.”
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