Durbin stops in Sauget to discuss Zika, emergency funding bill

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) met with local doctors and public health specialists in Sauget on Friday morning to discuss a growing threat posed by the Zika virus and his support of a $1.1 billion emergency funding bill that would fund Zika control efforts, vaccine research and health services for pregnant women.

The emergency funding bill is the result of a request from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health. More than 3,600 people in the U.S. and territories have been infected with Zika – including 23 people in Illinois, according to the CDC.

The funding bill passed in the Senate, but Durbin said during a conference committee to resolve bill differences with the House, it was loaded with “poison pill provisions.” Durbin said the provisions added would slash environmental regulations and block funding for Planned Parenthood, preventing family planning clinics from accessing funds they use “to help the very people most at risk from Zika virus.”

“Zika is a real public health emergency and it is only getting worse as the temperatures rise and summer travel season begins. It is unacceptable that some in Congress are politicizing disaster response with extreme and unnecessary partisan priorities. Now is not the time for playing politics with sham votes attempting to defund Planned Parenthood and roll back environmental protections,” Durbin said.

“I hope common sense will prevail in Washington and we can come together on a bipartisan basis and pass a responsible and clean bill that helps our nation protect pregnant women and babies from this potentially devastating virus. We are running out of time.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Durbin stops in Sauget to discuss Zika, emergency funding bill."