After being stripped out of a popular energy bill last week, the Senate deal to send money to Flint, Mich., and other cities with contaminated drinking water came roaring back to life Tuesday.
Michigan Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, have been working for months on a deal that would make $220 million available for Flint and other cities with drinking water emergencies. That deal is now included in the Water Resource Development Act of 2016, introduced Tuesday by Sens. Jim Inhofe and Barbara Boxer.
Peters said he’s confident there’s enough support for the bill and the deal to clear the 60-vote threshold to close debate when it eventually comes to the floor. He’s hoping the advanced timeline floated by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee aides Tuesday morning comes true, and the funding makes it through Congress during the summer.
“We’re hoping. We’re hoping, and I think this is certainly a vehicle that can move fairly quickly,” he said. “This has now become Plan A.”
The deal, originally attached to a comprehensive energy bill that passed the Senate last week, would make $100 million available to any state experiencing a drinking water emergency, provide $70 million to back secured loans to upgrade clean water and drinking infrastructure, and authorize $50 million in funding for health programs to address and prevent the effects of lead exposure. Peters and Stabenow would give up a Department of Energy advanced vehicle fund to pay for the package.
The deal died under opposition from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and other Republicans who didn’t want federal dollars to pay for what they see as a state problem. But putting the funding for Flint and other cities with drinking water crises within the base language of the water resource bill would not allow Lee or other senators to block it from coming to the floor, Peters said.
Lee’s office declined Tuesday to comment on whether he would be mounting an opposition to the bill.
In addition to the $220 million deal for Flint and other communities, the Water Resource Development Act of 2016 includes $1.4 billion in spending over the next five years to update water infrastructure in those places. Included in those plans are $300 million over the next five years to replace lead pipes and $100 million over the next five years to test for lead in the water in schools and daycare centers.
Stabenow thanked Boxer and Inhofe for their work on the bill and continuing to support Flint.
“I am pleased we have successfully found a new path forward to get urgently-needed help for families in Flint and other communities across the country with serious lead and water issues,” she said in a statement.
Flint’s congressman, Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee, called on the Senate to act quickly and said the House needs to follow suit.
“As a country, we have always come together to help those in need. Congress has acted countless times to provide aid to other Americans in crisis – they must also act now to help Flint families,” he said. “Both the Senate and House should take up a Flint aid bill without further delay.”
The bill is scheduled to go in front of the Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday and could be sent to the Senate floor shortly thereafter.
Minority Whip Dick Durbin said it’ll be up to Inhofe to make sure enough Republicans are behind the bill to make it move quickly through the upper chamber.
Durbin added that this will not be the last stand for Flint funding in Congress.
“It’s the best hope, not the last,” he said. “If it doesn’t work, we’re gonna find another way.”
