Black Caucus demands Flint funding from GOP

The Congressional Black Caucus is berating GOP leaders for not including funding for Flint, Mich., in the latest government spending bill unveiled this week.

Leaders of the caucus wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday demanding new money in this week’s bill for Flint’s longstanding water crisis.

{mosads}“With funding for Flint omitted from the continuing resolution, it’s clear: minority and low-income communities are not even the slightest priority for our Republican-led Congress,” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) wrote in a statement Friday.

Democrats in both chambers have threatened to reject the GOP’s latest budget proposal because it ignores the city’s lead contamination but provides relief for flood victims in Louisiana.

The letter from caucus chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), along with two other members from Michigan, does not specifically say they will vote against the spending bill if it doesn’t include the money for Flint.  

With money to fight the Zika virus settled, Flint has become the latest health crisis at the center of a bill to fund the government this fall.

The short-term government funding bill, which was formally unveiled Thursday, gives $500 million to help people in Louisiana whose homes were flooded in August storms. But Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Appropriations Committee ranking member Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), have called the bill a nonstarter without new funding to help people in Flint, most of whom cannot drink water from their homes.

The Senate will vote Tuesday on the 160-page bill to fund the government through Dec. 9, though Reid has vowed to oppose that vote over the exclusion of Flint money.

With five days left to avert a shutdown, Republicans could avoid a “no” vote in the Senate if the House acts first to commit money toward Flint.

Republicans, including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), have said funding for Flint belongs in a separate package called the Water Resources Development Act, which will go up for a vote in the House as soon as Monday night. The current House bill does not include funding for the water crisis, though the Senate’s version does, and GOP leaders have argued that the Flint money could be added during a conference.

The same spending bill had previously been held up over funding to fight the Zika virus. The GOP’s latest proposal would provide $1.1 billion to stop the spread of the virus, which can cause severe birth defects, while dropping the partisan provisions involving Planned Parenthood and pesticide use.