Residents of Pennsylvania have been through mosquito season before, but this season is undeniably different. The insects buzzing around heads and raising welts on arms and legs won’t have changed. But they will be a reminder of an explosive disease that is on our doorstep.

And the truth is that we’re still not ready; still haven’t put together the money or the science or the public resources to prepare ourselves for a virus that has already destroyed the lives of thousands of babies and mothers in South America.

In February President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika. For the next five months Congress dallied and did nothing. Then, in late June, Republicans in the House pushed through a $1.1 billion package tied to a veterans and military construction spending bill. The bill, which Democrats don’t support, passed 239 to 171.

Then members of the House happily adjourned until last week, going home without making sure the American people have vital tools for fighting the disease — and just in time for peak mosquito season, too. Predictably, the bill failed to gain the 60 votes needed for Senate passage.

That’s because purpose of the House’s bill wasn’t meant to fight Zika, it was to take swings at women’s health and the Affordable Care Act. Republicans found the $1.1 billion by cutting $750 million from the ACA, the Ebola virus response fund, and the Department of Health and Human Services. They also tied the anti-Zika funding to yet another backdoor attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.

What we need is a comprehensive and well-funded strategy to blunt the disease’s spread into mainland America. What we got is another display of political gamesmanship by a do-nothing Congress of historical proportions.

Zika, for which there is no cure or effective vaccination, is a global health crisis. It is tied to microcephaly in newborns, neurological disorders in adults, and presents a serious threat to pregnant women and their unborn children.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 599 pregnant women in the United States and its territories had contracted the disease as of June 30; 3,667 cases overall had been reported as of last week. Thirty-five of them are in Pennsylvania. In late June Florida public health officials confirmed the birth of the state’s first baby with Zika-related microcephaly.

Funding anti-Zika efforts — fighting mosquitoes, funding vaccine research, developing new diagnostic tools, and enhancing public education — is critical. The mosquitoes known to spread the disease are found in 30 states, including Pennsylvania, and Zika can also be transmitted by unprotected sex.

The choice is simple: act now, and prevent the births of mentally crippled babies who we could have saved, had our leaders been willing to put aside politicking in favor of acting to protect a generation of unborn children.