The GOP-controlled House has moved to officially begin talks on legislation to fund the fight against the Zika virus, but lawmakers immediately left town for the Memorial Day recess with no visible progress toward a compromise.

CAMPINAS, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 11: A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. Technicians from the Oxitec laboratory located in Campinas, 100km from Sao Paulo, are releasing genetically modified mosquitoes Aedes Egypti to combat Zika virus. The laboratory is acting in Piracicaba who had a dengue outbreak last summer with 132 cases and after treatment showed only two cases this summer .The Lab will release 250,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in two neighborhoods with a large concentration of incident cases of egypti aedes mosquito, the modified mosquitoes compete with wild mosquitoes and replace them with non-Zika transmitting mosquitoes . (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images)
A Biologist works with genetically modified mosquitoes on February 11, 2016 in Campinas, Brazil. (Photos by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images)
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The chamber adopted a procedural motion to begin a House-Senate conference panel on a Senate measure that combines $1.1 billion to fight Zika with broader spending bills for transportation, housing and veterans.

Zika is linked to severe birth defects and the funding would pay for developing a vaccine, fighting the mosquitoes that can spread Zika, and helping other countries battle the virus.

A key House-Senate difference in that the $622 million House measure includes cuts to other spending to defray its cost. Obama requested $1.9 billion three months ago.

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