Pelosi dismisses GOP ‘promise’ of Flint funding, wants action now

Arguing the urgency of the Flint, Mich., water crisis, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that Democrats aren’t ready to accept Republican promises to address the problem in the future.

“What’s the guarantee in the lame-duck?” she asked reporters during a roundtable discussion in her Capitol office.

“Why would we say to the kids of Flint, ‘Don’t get your hopes up, maybe we’ll do this later?'”

Republican leaders have refused the Democrats’ calls to include $220 million in Flint funding as part of their stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), which would extend government funding through Dec. 9. Without congressional action, large parts of the government will shut down on Saturday.

The Republicans instead want to address the Flint crisis as part of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). One version of that bill passed the Senate this month with the Flint money included. The House is scheduled to vote on a similar bill — without the Flint funding — later Tuesday.

With GOP leaders hoping to recess for the elections by the end of the week, it’s likely the negotiations to marry the two bills would be pushed to the lame-duck session.

Pelosi, echoing other Democrats, said the extended timeline — and the absence of assurances from GOP leaders that Flint would be included after the conference smoke cleared — has left many Democrats hinging their CR vote on the inclusion of the Flint language.

“It isn’t promised that it’ll be in there,” Pelosi said of the WRDA strategy. “It’s promised that it’ll be considered.”

Pelosi said Democrats are open to vehicles for Flint beyond the CR, but they’ll insist on Flint funding “that is legislated now.”

“We’re not talking about pie in the sky,” she said.

Pelosi’s comments came just a few hours before Senate Democrats voted nearly unanimously to block the Republicans’ CR over the Flint funding’s absence.

The last time the government shut down, in the fall of 2013, Republicans took the brunt of the political fallout, and GOP leaders are scrambling to prevent a similar debacle just weeks ahead of the elections. Still, it’s unclear what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will do next to try to break the impasse.

Pelosi on Tuesday declined to play her hand, saying her next move is contingent upon McConnell’s.

“Let’s see what they come up with,” she said. But promises to “consider” Flint funding later, she warned, are “not a commitment to get the job done.”