Prevalent. The virus is still only found in mosquitoes outside the country, and no cases have been transmitted in the continental u. S. In february, president obama requested emergency funds to fight zika. But summer is near, mosquito season is coming, and the centers for Disease Control is about to release a National Rapid response plan. All it needs is about 2 billion of your tax dollars. Journalist Jonathan Katz and his wife were working in mosquitoinfested haiti last january. Jonathan so, we were wearing long sleeve clothing. We were sleeping under a mosquito net that was treated with permethrin, which is a powerful insect repellent. Our clothes were treated with permethrin, and we were basically bathing ourselves in deet every day the way that we always do. Sharyl they still got bitten by mosquitoes and came down with the dreaded zika virus. Jonathan one night, in the middle of the night, claire started to feel sick, and we were wondering what it was for about a day, until the telltale rash showed up, and we realized that there was a high probability that it was zika. And she went to actually get blood test, and on the day that she went to get a blood test, i had the same rash. Sharyl it wasnt long before zika fever, at least the panic over it, also began hitting the u. S. Deputy dir. Schuchat everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought. Sharyl as fear over the zika virus has grown, so has president obamas request for tax money to fight it to nearly 1. 9 billion. Both the republicancontrolled house and senate rejected that in favor of smaller amounts the senate, 1. 1 billion, the house just shy of 622 million. Theyll need to agree before any of it gets spent. Katz says treating the inevitable march of Health Scares like zika and ebola as emergency crises can overstate the danger and prevent a more rational, effective response. Jonathan there is a constant catastrophism in the media, the way that things get covered, and you know, part of the reason for that is that it can be the only way to get peoples attention. Zika, to use that particular example, is not a catastrophe at the moment. Obviously, for you personally, that can feel catastrophic, but on the societal level at the moment, its not a catastrophe. Sharyl republican senator marco rubio says congress should pay now and ask questions later. Sen. Rubio we should never allow the inability to agree on how to pay for it to stand in the way of addressing a Public Health crisis that threatens to become a Public Health catastrophe. Sharyl republican congressman mark meadows says the real issue, though, is understanding exactly where all that money will go. Whats your take on the emergency nature of the zika virus and the request for funding . Rep. Meadows well, obviously, it is a healthcare crisis that we have to deal with. Certainly, the cdc has long been a good player in the role of trying to make sure that americans are healthy and safe, and yet at the same time, we see a lot of these crises come forward and the dollar amount not well thought out, i think would be a good way to put it. Sharyl theres some debate over whether zika is actually to blame in brazils epidemic of birth defects called microcephaly. If so, officials cant explain why theres been just a handful outside of brazil. The cdc and World Health Organization recently concluded zika is the culprit, but concede other factors may combine with zika virus infection to cause neurological disorders. In other words, there may be other reasons in addition to zika resulting in brazils strange microcephaly epidemic. 80 of people who get zika dont get sick or have any symptoms. For those who do, like katz, its usually not serious. Jonathan red eyes, a little bit of the conjunctivitis, some of the joint pain, some of the swelling. Fingers and toes swell up a little, kind of like sausages. Sharyl he wrote about reporting on zika when you have zika for the new york times. Jonathan zika was extremely mild. Initially get it, its not nearly as bad as most mosquitoborne diseases could be, but the jury is still out on what the longterm effects are. Sharyl there are mixed signals when it comes to the upcoming summer olympics in brazil. The World Health Organizations says the zika risk isnt serious enough to move the games. Whatever questions remain, White House Press secretary josh earnest says congress has all the information it needs to act on zika funding. Press sec. Earnest ignorance is not an excuse. Theyve had opportunities to ask their questions. Theres ample information thats been provided by the administration. Sharyl cdc wouldnt give us a detailed breakdown of exactly how it would spend the money. Heres the General Information thats been provided 699 million would go to medicare and medicaid, and domestic response. 416 million to puerto rico, the state department, and international response. 335 million for the u. S. Agency for international development, also to help other nations. 295 million under the category and 140 million for vaccine development. A lot of people dont understand this about washington. When a lump sum like that is asked for, nearly 2 billion, had somebody worked out, well, its specifically for this number of tv ads, to raise awareness on these dates, on these stations, and heres how much it costs, or is this number just kind of thrown out of thin air . Rep. Meadows thats a great analysis, and youre right. The American People dont see the thought process because they think as moms and dads on main street would think, or Business People and say, well, if youre going to request a budget, you would have so much that goes for x, another amount that would go for y, another amount that would go for z. and yet, here what we see is from the administration, you know, its put in very large chunks that are very generic in terms of their scope. Sharyl senders for Disease Control director thomas friedm. Part, weve given specifics. We have a very specific plan. Its our best estimate of whats needed. The situation changes day by day. This is a rapidly changing epidemic. Sharyl even without congressional action, a half billion dollars has already been found for the fight. That includes 85 million tax Dollars Health and Human Services steered toward the effort and 500 million of leftover ebola money. Rep. Meadows theres about 2. 7 billion we could shift around within 30 days to address this, and so its time that we get to work and address this health care concern. Sharyl shift around meaning not new . Rep. Meadows not new money. Yeah, i think thats the good part is that it was already appropriated money. Its sitting there unobligated to other causes that directly impact the health and safety of American People, and so you can just literally shift the focus there. Sharyl frieden insists thats a bad idea. Dir. Frieden the real problem with some of the proposals weve seen is that they would rob peter to pay pau our guard against one problem to fight another problem. You dont defund fighting terrorism in the middle east to fight it in africa. Jonathan im not saying that there shouldnt be money spent and that congress shouldnt take this seriously, but i think its important for everybody as informed citizens to look and see what your representatives are doing, where the money is getting spent, and understand what exactly it is that this money is supposed to do and how it proposes to do it. And then how were going to know once theyre done whether theyve done it or not. Sharyl Health Officials say they dont expect a zika epidemic here like the one in brazil because the areas most likely impacted, texas and florida, are much less densely populated than the hot zones in brazil. The u. S. Also has better mosquito control. Still ahead on full measure trying to target potential terrorists before they strike is a difficult task. We take a look at some reasons why the watchlist doesnt work. Shooter omardo mateen was known to the fbi. He had made their watchlist. Mateen was closely scrutinized on two occasions, both for inflammatory, proterrorist remarks and for potential ties to another american who traveled to syria and became a suicide bomber. He was interviewed in person three times, then cleared. This isnt the first time the fbi has closed cases on terrorism suspects, who went on before you ask how that is possible, a first consideration is just how big this threat really is. Scott thuman reports on the new, homegrown front in the war on terror. Seamus theres not a typical profile of an isis recruit. Theyre old, theyre young, rich, poor, college graduates, high school dropouts. Scott Seamus Hughes spent years advising congress on counterterrorism. Now, he and his staff at George Washington university monitor the hundreds of angry, proisis americans on social media. Seamus what youre looking at is our Old School Board of isis twitter followers online, mostly americans we have been following for the last year or so. Theyre all talking about how great isis is. Scott hughes says he doesnt want to be an alarmist, but doesnt want to minimize the threat either. We are coming for you, mark my words, listen to my words, big kaffir. Scott the fact is that the number of proisis sympathizers in america is surging, and the fbi is working overtime to from the actual plotters, sorting through more than 1,500 tips a day. Seamus theyre making judgment calls every day, and were asking them to make judgment calls in terms of when someone makes that leap from espousing the ideology to making any violent action. Thats very difficult to do. Were asking them to be clairvoyant, essentially. Scott the fbi says there are 1,000 active investigations into homegrown, violent extremists nationwide at least one in every state. 88 americans have been charged by the fbi, and 40 have pled or been found guilty since 2014. Fbi director james comey testified to the challenge this week. Dir. Comey we are looking for needles in a nationwide haystack, but were also called upon to figure out which pieces of hay might someday become needles. David we have all the tools that we need. I think that theyre being applied inef scott david gomez is a retired fbi special agent who ran seattles joint Terrorism Task force. He says the fbi must follow the constitution and be equally mindful of civil liberties, a legacy of the Church Committee investigations. Senator frank church we have seen today the dark side of those activities. Scott it was those investigations which found the fbi had engaged in unauthorized surveillance in the 1960s and 1970s. But in a recent article for Foreign Policy, gomez wrote, the fact is the fbis ability to investigate any case is limited by the requirements of probable cause to open a full investigation. David its a fluid concept. Basically, it means that you have conducted enough investigation, or have received enough information, to believe that a crime has been or will be committed and you need investigative powers to go forward with your investigation. Scott investigative powers like physical and electronic surveillance, tools the fbi cant use without establishing probable cause. Omar mateen was the subject of only a preliminary inquiry launching a full investigation would have required evidence mateen was about to commit a crime. David but i think it is time to take a look at these standards and see if there is, in some ways, some wiggle room that would allow the agents to either temporarily expand their case, to utilize a wiretap, or utilize an undercover investigation, or some other intrusive technique. Perhaps as little as surveillance. Scott gomez says there is a precedent for this when the u. S. Is at war. David following 9 11, it was a lot easier to get a search warrant because of what was perceived as the imminent threat from alqaeda. Scott after nidal hasan killed 13 people at fort hood in 2009, a Bipartisan Senate commission slammed the fbi. In a statement chairman Joe Lieberman said the fbi conducted a superficial inquiry and ended it prematurely. The commission called for a new approach to prevent domestic islamic extremism. After the 2013 boston bombing, the fbi disclosed it had known about Tamerlan Tsarnaev as well, but closed its case after an assessment concluded there was no evidence of a National Security threat. The fbi has been working to better identify homegrown threats. The terrorist Screening Center was created after 9 11 to keep closer tabs on potential attackers. Diana maurer Congress Passed a law that said, pull all this information together into a single list, the terrorist screening database, or the watch list, and use that across all the different federal agencies so that everyone is on the same Playing Field when theyre trying to make decisions. Scott diana maurer is the director of the Government Accountability offices Homeland Security program and has studied how the fbi nominates suspects to the list. Dir. Maurer my understanding of the fbi is that a preliminary is enough to put you on the list you have to advance to a full blown in the list. Scott mateen was taken off the list after his preliminary inquiry was closed. Because he was no longer an open case, the fbi wasnt alerted to his gun purchase. Even if he had been on the list, which currently includes roughly 800,000 names, he may still have been allowed to obtain a firearm. Dir. Maurer you are still allowed to buy guns in the United States if you are on the terrorist watch list. We found that, on average, roughly 200 or so times a year, there are attempts made by individuals on the terrorist watch list to purchase weapons within the United States. David the fbi and Law Enforcement becomes damned if you do and damned if you dont. You, you, youre expected to prevent the commission of a terrorist act, but youre not necessarily allowed to use all of the techniques that are available to you. And, and this is, this is the dilemma, we have a bit of a paradox here. Scott an added administrative duties. Due to a shrinking support staff, fbi special agents spend an inordinate amount of time typing up reports and indexing information instead of out on the streets investigating. Several members of congress are pushing for more fbi funding to hire additional agents. Sharyl all the money and effort and still so many problems. Scott absolutely. Sharyl thank you so much. Still ahead on full measure Reporters Without Borders at a gathering in moscow. Well hear some problems the press faces in other parts of the world. The greek flavors of our mediterranean collection. Ve your choice of delicious chicken or hearty steak. With crumbled feta and cool, creamy tzatziki sauce. Try our mediterranean collection today. Subway. Fresh is what we do. Thisl britain will vote week to stay in or exit from the European Union, the socalled vote. Ote brexit official campaigning stopped thursday when a lawmaker campaigning against the exit was shot in the street. Those who want to stay in the e. U. Claim it brings economic and security benefits, those who want out say it will allow britain to control its own destiny on the economy and immigration. Keeping the e. U. Together has been tested over the past year, largely by strains created by the Mass Immigration of refugees from syria and other nations. Something can be told about the state of a nation by looking at the state of its news press. Are a variety of voices and views freely represented . Or are they being shouted down and shut out . Censorship and press freedoms were the focus at an International Journalism conference i attended in moscow, russia this month, and its clear that many countries are, like the u. S. , struggling with powers attempting to control the message. Whats the state of journalism, in terms of a free press and reporting where you are . The reporting on views left, right, or neutral, journalists censorship. Whats the state of journalism, in terms of a free press and reporting where you are . Chris borain we have a very free and robust press, but we have a state broadcaster whos starting to move slightly away from that in terms of not showing various forms of protest, a bit of censorship kicking in, which is something that a majority of the free press i work for are very upset about. Sharyl this is in south africa . Chris this is in south africa. And so, what the state broadcaster is doing instead of telling people about the protests, they are worried that if they show demonstrations that will then lead to demonstrations, so thats why theyre not showing that at all theyre trying to sanitize the news. Sharyl what forms of censorship are faced in china, is it very blatant . Are journalists sometimes told by government what not to publish or is there selfcensorship . Lijia zhang they are certainly selfcensorship, but there also is lots of censorship from the government. I have a friend whos editor of a newspaper in beijing, and she received a long list of things not to talk about. Neil clark i see a big change, really, in the british media, certainly in the last ten, particularly in the last five years. The parameters of the things that we can sort of say and write are much narrower now than they used to be. Sharyl can you elaborate a little bit on that . Neil yeah, i call it the new mccarthyism and i dont think thats overstating it. The thing is this very pernicious gatekeeping going on the targeting of any journalist who really puts their heads above the curb on certain issues and Foreign Policy is the number one sort of no go area really and this is a kind of bullying and intimidation and its all meant to silence a journalist and also push you out of the mainstream. They dont want you in the mainstream theyre terrified of you being in the mainstream outlets. And looking at my journalism and journalists like me, we find it harder to write on some of our Foreign Policy in the mainstream than we did 1015 years ago. Nanda muruttetuwegama all the countrymen, they should, they have a right to get information, government information, monetary information, everything. So therefore, thats why our new government is going to introduce Media Information act, now they are debating in parliament about this act. Sharyl do you think its going to pass . Nanda yes, we will be able to implement this. Sharyl do you feel youve met some forms of censorship in the uk over the topics that you try to cover . Rodney atkinson yes, i mean not for general political economy, where im reasonably wellknown as an occasional adviser of many years, but on the subject of the obnoxious origins of the European Union and its corporate fascist foundations, there has been considerable censorship. Sharyl russia and syrias News Agencies signed cooperative agreements at the event. [applause] sharyl one Syrian News Agency official said its hard to know where the truth lies in News Coverage about his wartorn country. Sometimes, he says, the houses of journalists are hit by mortar shells in retaliation for their reporting. Russian president Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit. He encouraged journalists to tell the story of russias rich culture and economy. But russia faces its own criticism. Reporters without borders ranks russia 148 out of 180 countries on its annual press Freedom Index for what the group calls the stifling atmosphere for independent reporters. By the way, the u. S. Ranks 41st on this years press Freedom Index, drawing criticism for the governments war on whistleblowers. When we return on full measure the battle to close the Guantanamo Bay prison ho sharyl something you may not have heard this week about the u. S. Prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, cuba, Holding Islamic extremist enemy combatants. President obamas pledge to close gitmo, a key promise in his campaign and raised in his first final state of the union address, will go gently into the night, along with his second term. Several reports this week stated the administration is not going to pursue an executive order to shutter the prison after all. Congress is unyielding on a ban to stop any of the detainees from being transferred to facilities in the u. S. One Administration Source cited all of the hurdles and the potential of controversy in an abandoning the plan to shut it down. The number of prisoners in gitmo under bush and obama has ranged from nearly 800 at its peak to about 80 today. The administration has plans to transfer many of those remaining out to other countries. According to some intelligence reports, as many as a third of those released from gitmo have returned to the jihad fight against americans. On the next full measure, is overabundance of caution costing americans jobs . We take a look at how long it takes and how much it costs to get an occupational license in some states. Lets say a military vet returns from a war and wants to kind of hang out a shingle and cut hair. What would that take in a given state . In the state of nevada, almost 1000 days. 890 days of training to become a barber in the state of nevada. Sharyl that story coming up on the next full measure. Thats all for this week. Thank you for watching. Im sharyl attkisson. Until next time, well be from washington d. C. And around the world, this is Government Matters with francis rose. Thanks for watching the sunday morning edition of Government Matters. Each week you get the latest on the topics that matter to the business of government like technology, defense, workfoe, security, and industry. Government matters is only show exploring trends in the federal community. Im your host, francis rose. The House Oversight committee voted to sensor john mccomdan. And we have