The New York Times reports that four people in Florida—three men and one woman—have contracted the virus, which health department officials believe to have been transmitted by local mosquitos. If this turns out to be true, it will be the first instance of mosquitos carrying the virus inside the U.S. (all previous cases of Zika in the country have been from travel abroad).
The news does not come as a surprise—officials have been preparing for this eventual scenario for months. However, the timing only highlights Congress’s inability to pass the $1.9 billion funding bill that President Obama requested to combat the virus. Marco Rubio, one of the few Republicans who is pushing for full funding, stated back in April, “I don’t think we want to be halfway through the summer and wake up to the news that hundreds and hundreds of Americans in multiple states have been infected and we did nothing.”