WASHINGTON D.C — Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio is the leading a bipartisan effort to re-authorize federal funding to fight mosquito-borne illnesses. 

Fellow Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott has also signed onto the legislation to allocate $100 million per year for the Centers for Disease Control's Mosquito Abatement for Safety and Health program. The push comes as there have recently been seven locally-acquired malaria cases confirmed in Florida, in addition to another in Texas. 

In a statement Rubio said, “The threat of mosquito-borne illness is a concern for Florida, Puerto Rico, and other parts of our country. We must take proactive measures to ensure the safety and health of all Americans. States and localities must have the tools they need to combat illnesses spread by mosquitoes. This bill is another step toward keeping Floridians and tourists safe.”

A CDC spokesperson said the agency does not comment on proposed or pending legislation. The CDC says it is working with the state health departments in Florida and Texas to investigate the eight Malaria cases that have been confirmed. The first positive case was identified on May 24th, and the latest on July 13th. 

At a briefing last week, Dr. Audrey Lenhart with the CDC said she’s hopeful their strategy is working. "We have to think in terms of when a mosquito could have potentially bitten someone that had malaria and then how long it would take for that mosquito to die. A typical mosquito will live maybe three weeks, but they can live up to six or eight weeks. So truly every day that goes by, gets us closer to feeling confident that the transmission cycle has been interrupted," she said. 

The Florida cases all occurred in North Sarasota County with three of the seven occurring in homeless individuals. Officials say all are recovering and that multiple forms of insecticide are being used to prevent further transmissions. 

"The CDC has been providing some technical guidance on spray operations. But it's important to note that Sarasota County mosquito management has a vast amount of experience controlling mosquitoes including the mosquitoes that transmit malaria. So they're very well informed on how to best control these particular types of mosquitoes," Lenhart said. 

Experts say it’s possible someone infected in another country traveled back to the U.S, and was bit again by a mosquito here that then transmitted the disease. 

"This is a species of malaria, which is prevalent mostly in South America. So maybe someone came with malaria and bitten by the mosquitoes and so it's transmitted to local mosquitoes and then a local transmission occurred," said Dr. Abhai Tripathi with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.