--- title: Zika: President Obama Blasts Congress Over Zika Funding description: "To the extent that we’re not handling this thing on the front end, we’re going to have bigger problems on the back end,” he said. canonical: https://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-20T17:24:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:43:36.116Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Blasts Congress Over Zika Funding og:description: "All of this work costs money" og:url: https://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt714deece155d5a3a/6988941ef887dc40e1e95f30/gettyimages-533072964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-HEALTH-OBAMA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Blasts Congress Over Zika Funding twitter:description: "All of this work costs money" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt714deece155d5a3a/6988941ef887dc40e1e95f30/gettyimages-533072964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Blasts Congress Over Zika Funding > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 20, 2016 5:24 PM UTC  (L-R) Amy Pope, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor, US Vice President Joe R. Biden, US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden wait after a meeting about the Zika virus in the Oval Office of the White House BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images (L-R) Amy Pope, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor, US Vice President Joe R. Biden, US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden wait after a meeting about the Zika virus in the Oval Office of the White House BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 20, 2016 5:24 PM UTC President Obama blasted Congress for failing to provide more funding to combat the[ Zika virus](http://time.com/4318624/zika-virus-and-birth-defects-what-you-need-to-know/), telling members to send a bill to his desk that has sufficient funds to fight disease. “Congress needs to get me a bill. It needs to get me a bill that has sufficient funds to do the job,” President Obama said Friday, shortly after the CDC reported that [279 pregnant women in the U.S. and its territories](http://time.com/4343056/pregnant-women-united-states-zika/?xid=homepage) have contracted the virus. “To the extent that we’re not handling this thing on the front end, we’re going to have bigger problems on the back end.” Obama previously [requested $1.9 billion](https://www.whitehouse.gov/zika) to fight the virus earlier this year, when scientists first began to make the link between the virus and microcephaly, an abnormally small head in babies. Zika funding bills passed both the House and the Senate this week, though neither met the President’s desired level of funding. A Republican-backed bill in the House that allocated $622 million will have to be reconciled with a compromise measure that passed the Senate this week, which provided $1.1 billion to combat Zika. On Friday, after getting briefed on the virus by national health officials at the White House, President Obama told reporters the money needed to take on Zika, including funds that will be necessary to develop a vaccine and tests to diagnose it, could very quickly surpass the level of funding the House has put forward. The President also expressed discontent over the fact that the House has proposed offsetting the cost of Zika funding by cutting money set aside to fight the Ebola virus. “All of this work costs money,” the President said. “All that the House has said is, ‘You can rob Peter to pay Paul.’” **Read more**: [10 Zika Facts You Need to Know Now ](http://time.com/4318624/zika-virus-and-birth-defects-what-you-need-to-know/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/"},"headline":"President Obama Blasts Congress Over Zika Funding","datePublished":"2016-05-20T17:24:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:43:36.116Z","description":"\"All of this work costs money\"","url":"https://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/","keywords":["Congress","Barack Obama","White House","Obama","Infectious Disease","Zika virus","Zika"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt714deece155d5a3a/6988941ef887dc40e1e95f30/gettyimages-533072964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt714deece155d5a3a/6988941ef887dc40e1e95f30/gettyimages-533072964.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-HEALTH-OBAMA","caption":"US-POLITICS-HEALTH-OBAMA","creditText":"BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4343317/president-obama-zika-funding-congress-us/","name":"President Obama Blasts Congress Over Zika Funding"}}]}] ```