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Two months ago, the Obama administration asked for roughly $1.9 billion in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus. Public-health officials were eager to get money for vaccine research and more. “We are hopeful that Congress will recognize the urgency of this request and act quickly on it,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at a February briefing, accompanied by health-agency officials. “This sort of falls in the category of things that shouldn’t break down along party lines.

Just months into the job, House Speaker Paul Ryan is winning praise from his GOP colleagues by finding ways to bring President Obama to heel in his last year in office, like forcing new certification deadlines on the government and challenging Obama personally when he disagrees with how federal officials implement laws.

The Obama administration will take $589 million in existing federal funds — most of which were intended to combat the Ebola virus — and spend the money instead on fighting the spread of the Zika virus.

The Obama administration will transfer $589 million, including $510 million that was originally allocated for Ebola, to fight the Zika outbreak, but is still calling on Congress to fund a $1.9 billion emergency funding request from February.

The Obama administration plans to spend unused Ebola funds to fight the Zika virus, a breakthrough that could ease the standoff with Congress over the administration’s request for emergency money for the crisis.

The Duncan Rotary Club hosted U.S. Congressman Tom Cole for the last meeting in March.

Tom Cole doesn’t vape. The 66-year-old Republican representative from Oklahoma prefers cigars, yet he’s currently a bit of an unlikely champion in the vaping industry. That’s thanks to a bill he has been trying to shepherd through Congress that would protect vaping manufacturers from a potentially fatal blow in pending regulations.

Lawmakers left town Wednesday for their spring recess without voting on an emergency funding request for the Zika virus, as the Obama administration and congressional Republicans failed to resolve their disagreement over whether federal health agencies need more money to support research and preparedness.