Senate

Senate Dems: Add Flint aid to spending deal

by Jordain Carney - 09/27/16 9:05 AM ET

Top Senate Democrats are pressing the GOP to renegotiate a short-term spending deal to include aid for the Flint, Mich., drinking water crisis days ahead of a looming government shutdown.

Eight senators — led by Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — sent a letter Tuesday to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) saying the continuing resolution (CR) should “include emergency federal disaster funding for Flint, Michigan and other communities across the nation struggling with the scourge of toxic, lead-tainted water supplies.”

{mosads}”The CR is the only must-pass legislation remaining on the Congressional calendar, and Democrats have been clear that Congress should not leave Flint and other lead-tainted communities out of any CR negotiation that includes emergency disaster funding,” the senators wrote.

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Gary Peters (Mich.) also signed the letter.

Senators are expected to take a procedural vote Tuesday afternoon on a short-term spending bill that would fund the government through Dec. 9. Democrats are threatening to withhold their support because the measure does not include aid for Flint.

Republicans are quick to note that the Senate passed a water infrastructures bill earlier this month that included help for the Michigan community.

But the House version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) doesn’t include the money, and Democrats warned Tuesday that the “path for that bill to reach the President’s desk with aid for Flint and other communities intact remains unclear.”

The showdown on the Senate floor comes after McConnell filed a CR last week that included Democrat-supported priorities, including funding to fight the Zika virus. But leadership quickly came out in opposition to the bill, noting they didn’t sign off on the proposal.

The letter comes after McConnell pressured Democrats to back the bill from the Senate floor on Monday, questioning whether they want to remove flood aid for Louisiana, West Virginia and Maryland that is currently included in the bill.

Democrats said in the letter that Republicans should not consider removing the emergency flood funding but instead consider inserting aid for Flint and other communities.

House GOP leadership has pointed to the WRDA, and not the CR, as the vehicle for getting the Flint help to the president’s desk.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) also pledged in a Huffington Post op-ed late last week that the final version of the legislation would include the drinking water aid.