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September 30, 2016 at 12:32 PM
A new federal law, the Zika Response and Preparedness Act, provides $75 million in Zika virus response funding for states, U.S. territories, Native American tribes and tribal organizations affected by active or local transmissions of Zika.
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The states and other organizations that get the money can use some of it to pay for medical care for people who are uninsured or underinsured, according to the bill text.
The funding can be used to “reimburse the costs of health care for health conditions related to the Zika virus, other than costs that are covered by private health insurance,” according to the text.
Congress included a total of $1.1 billion in Zika response funding in H.R. 5325, a temporary spending bill that President Obama signed into law Thursday.
The full, formal name of the law is the “Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act.”
The law lets the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a number of federal agencies continue operating into the 2017 federal fiscal year while Congress works to pass formal fiscal year 2017 budget and appropriations measures.
The 2017 federal fiscal year starts Saturday.
The Zika sections of the new law aim specific amounts of funding at specific agencies and activities.
