Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of “playing politics” with a short-term spending and Zika funding bill Democrats said they will again vote to block this afternoon.
“Can it really be that Democratic leaders have embraced dysfunction so thoroughly that they’d tank a noncontroversial, 10-week funding bill over — well, what exactly?” McConnell asked on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. He said there are “zero” provisions included the Democrats would traditionally oppose.
But Democrats said they will not vote for the bill until Republicans agree to add $200 million to aid Flint, Mich., where lead has contaminated the water supply.
Republicans have argued that the money is included in a Senate bill authorizing water projects, a move endorsed by the White House, which said the legislation is an “appropriate vehicle” for the funding, McConnell argued.
“This 10-week funding bill need not be, as some Democratic leaders seem to wish, some titanic struggle for the ages,” McConnell said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday he is also in favor of keeping the Flint money in the water resources bill.
The House is slated to vote on its version of the bill this week, but it does not include money for Flint, which Ryan said could be negotiated when the two chambers hash out a compromise between the two measures.
