Could Republicans be to blame for the threat of Ebola in the United States? An ad titled "Republican Cuts Kill" released Sunday implies so.

On Sunday night, The Agenda Project released an ad attacking the Republican Party for budget cuts that from 2010 through 2014 took $585 million the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $446 million from the National Institutes for Health, CNN reports. The ad is to air in various states with tight Senate races, such as Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina.

According to CNN, The Agenda Project is a liberal advocacy group. The group's official website says it aims to "build a powerful, intelligent, well-connected political movement capable of identifying and advancing rational, effective ideas in the public debate and in so doing ensure our country's enduring success."

In an interview with CNN, Erica Payne, The Agenda Project founder and president, said that the connection between Republicans and the Ebola threat is "really straightforward."

"These people's anti-government fever has reached such a level that it is damaging to our country's ability to deal with this kind of issue," she said. "We're here because of them."

Steve Israel, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee president and a New York congressman, said in a communique that Republicans have poor priorities, EFE reports.

"House Republicans' priorities aren't just out-of-touch, they're dangerous, and in their fervor to protect special interests' tax breaks," he said. "Republicans even used their first budget vote to cut funding for the CDC that protects us from epidemics like Ebola."

A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee shifted the blame elsewhere, saying that Democrats need to be removed from the Senate "driver's seat."

"It's odd in that the Democrats blaming Washington for Ebola have controlled Washington for the last six years," he told CNN.

In an interview given to Huffington Post on Friday and published Sunday, Dr. Francis Collins, head of NIH, said that they have been trying to create an Ebola vaccine since 2001.

"Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready," he said. "... We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference."

Watch the ad below:


Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.
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