Republican House and Senate negotiators have been working to resolve differences between a Senate plan to provide $1.1 billion in emergency financing for Zika and a House plan that would provide $622 million but would take the money from other programs.
Both proposals offered far less money to fight Zika than the $1.9 billion requested by the Obama administration. Still, Senate Democrats and the White House had indicated some willingness to go along with the Senate plan.
But as the Republican negotiators announced Wednesday evening that they had reached a tentative agreement — which the House approved early Thursday in a 239-171 vote — Democrats lashed out. They said the proposal was layered with numerous unrelated provisions that they would never accept, including an effort to restrict government financing of Planned Parenthood, the women’s health organization.
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