Obama hopeful on spending, Zika funds after meeting Congress leaders

Government funding runs out September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.

"We don't need to be calling people out", Ros-Lehtinen said.

"We're making good progress toward resolving all of the moving parts, and ultimately we'll move a [continuing resolution] that addresses Zika and other matters", said McConnell, who is backing President Barack Obama's call for a bill that authorizes federal spending through December 9. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.

However, a $1.1 billion funding bill was rejected last week for the third time by US Senate Democrats, after Republicans inserted language that would end funding for a major abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.

By "clean", the lawmakers meant a bill that doesn't include policy provisions related to Planned Parenthood or other provisions that could scuttle the deal.

"There will be severely limited capacity to support mosquito control and surveillance, no funds to conduct multi-year studies needed to protect pregnant women by better understanding the link between Zika disease and birth defects, and no support to states and territories like Florida and Puerto Rico to manage cases of Zika-diagnosed patients and increase lab capacity", Bell warned.

The Zika virus seems to be spreading at alarming rates in the United States with scientists estimating that around 670 pregnant women are suffering from the virus and around 17 babies have been born with microcephaly as a result of this.

"I am here to share with the Senate that I think we have finally found a path forward to fund the fight against Zika", Nelson said in a speech.

Obama's first meeting with both House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., since February comes a week after lawmakers returned to Washington from a seven-week summer recess and a few days after Obama returned from a nine-day trip to Asia. The House-passed Zika bill provides funding to state and local health agencies, but omits any funding of Planned Parenthood. Gov. John Bel Edwards last week had requested $2 billion, but upped the amount on Monday. But a minority of House conservatives favor a stop-gap measure that would extend current funding levels into next year, giving a new president and Congress the opportunity to craft long-term spending bills. More than 180,000 people have registered for disaster aid.

Obama's priorities for a lame-duck postelection session of Congress will also be on the table Monday afternoon at the White House.

After videos surfaced a year ago that critics said proved some Planned Parenthood clinics had been selling fetal tissue for a profit, a charge the organization denied, some outraged Republicans demanded the inclusion of a measure defunding it in last fall's stopgap spending measure. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he would try to convince lawmakers to change course on the issue.

The president said he was hopeful about being able to "get things done" with Congress on issues including criminal justice reform when legislators meet again after the elections.

For Rubio and other Republicans running for re-election, Congress's failure to act on Zika is a potential vulnerability, even as Democratic senators have repeatedly blocked the House's version of the bill.