Senator Rubio discusses Zika virus funding with WJNO's Joel Malkin

Senator Marco Rubio: “There’ll be a vote in the Senate today on $1.1 billion. The Democrats will vote against it because they claim it goes after Planned Parenthood. It does not. But that’s the excuse they’ve made up to block it. My hope is, and what I am working on, is there is going to be some sort of mechanism to fund the government so it doesn’t shut down in September. The budget basically expires on September 30th. So as part of whatever it is we use as a mechanism to fund government through the end of the year, whether it is a budget or a continuing resolution or whatever it is, I am working hard to the get the Zika funding as part of that. And that’s essential. And I’ve been calling for this since March. It’s time to act and the most important reason why is not simply just to help local governments with the eradication of mosquitoes, but the vaccine, the development of that vaccine. They’re making real progress. And if the funding is cut off we lose that, all that stops. So my hope is that we can move on that fairly quickly. And in the meantime the President should continue to spend the money he has access to.”