With Zika possibly spreading in Florida, Hillary Clinton is focusing on the crisis by visiting a hard-hit community and calling for Congress to return to Washington to deal with it.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s candidate, will be in the Wynwood neighborhood in the afternoon, visiting the Borinquen Medical Center, a health clinic that has been treating people in the area for over a month.
Clinton will call on Congress to return to Washington and pass emergency funding for the Zika response during the visit.
She will demand Republican leaders bring Congress back in session to either pass stalled legislation or craft a new bipartisan compromise bill to provide funding for testing, treatment and research on the disease, according to aides briefed on her plans.
Her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, has already said he'd return to Washington for a vote on a Zika bill.
A new case of the virus is being investigated in Palm Beach County, in a person who had visited Miami and possibly contracted it there. In addition, six new travel-related cases have been identified and Hillsborough, Polk, and Leon counties now have infected residents, in addition to Miami-Dade. That makes for 357 travel-related cases so far in the state, and the number of locally acquired infections is now 17.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is showing no inclination to either take a break in his recess—or back down from the take-it-or-leave it bill he offered Democrats, crammed with poison pills that include blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving Zika prevention funds.