WASHINGTON, Shawwal 07, 1437, July 12, 2016, SPA -- Government research into finding a vaccine to protect against the Zika virus is likely to be delayed if Congress exits Washington through Labor Day without approving new money to battle the virus, a top government research scientist said Tuesday, according to AP. The delay in funding vaccine development is perhaps the most damaging result of a divided Washington's inability to agree on an anti-Zika funding bill almost five month after President Barack Obama's request. "It's going to take that much longer to prove that the vaccine works," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, who says testing next January on a promising vaccine faces delays. "If it takes that much longer to prove that it works then you take that much longer to get it out to the people who need it." The impasse on Zika shows no signs of softening, even though taking a seven-week vacation without addressing the problem could be politically perilous for both Republicans controlling Congress and Democrats blocking Republicans' $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure to battle the virus. --SPA 00:21 LOCAL TIME 21:21 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w