A show of force from Republican Michigan lawmakers on the House floor to get funding for Flint, a traditionally Democratic city, was a sign of “how Congress should work,” a GOP lawmaker said Thursday.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., co-sponsored an amendment with Flint’s Democratic congressman, Rep. Dan Kildee, to get $170 million in federal aid added to the House version of the Water Resources Development Act. Moolenaar led a contingent of state Republicans who spoke on the floor and cajoled 101 of their GOP colleagues into supporting the amendment.
Despite the fact that the money was heading to a Democratic district, Moolenaar said the drinking water crisis in Flint represented a failure of government at all levels, including the federal government. That meant Congress had to make it right, despite the politics at play.
“Not often in Congress do you see a bipartisan solution to a challenging problem,” he said. “Especially when it goes back to the finger-pointing between state, local, federal, the partisan back and forth.”
“To have us come together as a delegation in a bipartisan way, solving a significant problem and building support throughout the country to get this done was very gratifying. To me, it’s an example of how Congress should work.”
Funding for the city of 100,000 in eastern Michigan where residents can’t drink tap water without a filter due to high lead levels threatened to shut down the government this week. Senate Democrats vowed to block any government funding bill that did not include funding for the city and made good on that promise Tuesday afternoon.
It took a deal reached late Tuesday between congressional leadership to add the $170 million deal to the water bill. That placated Senate Democrats, prompting them to drop their objections to the government funding bill signed by President Obama Thursday.
Moolenaar and Michigan Republicans Fred Upton, Candace Miller and Bill Huizenga joined Kildee on the floor to speak in support of the funding. It was a Republican show of support for the city that calmed some fears about the amendment’s future, especially after Heritage Action for America advised conservative lawmakers to vote against the deal on Wednesday.
The deal passed with every Democrat and 101 Republicans voting in favor of the amendment. The full $5 billion WRDA bill easily passed the full House, 399-25, and lawmakers will go to a conference committee with the Senate, which also included money for Flint in their legislation.
Moolenaar said it was a challenge explaining to Republicans from other states exactly how the federal government was involved in the lead water crisis in Flint. Many conservative lawmakers see the crisis as a local and state issue.
He said his goal was to tell them them that the Environmental Protection Agency knew about the lead water issues in Flint for months before residents were told, knew about faulty testing procedures and knew state regulators were not putting the right chemicals in the water to protect Flint residents.
He emphasized that members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee from both parties agreed the EPA played a role in creating the crisis. While not all Republicans got on board with the idea of Congress sending aid, enough were convinced.
“That was a challenge, and I’m not sure we reached everyone with that message,” he said. “In my view, this was a situation where government actually created the problem. To me, that was a very clear situation where the federal government has a role. Not everyone understood the role the EPA played in this failure.”
Now that the bill has headed to negotiations between the House and the Senate, where a $9 billion version of the bill passed 95-3, Moolenaar said he’s confident Flint funding will make it to President Obama’s desk by the end of the year.
Commitments from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rep.. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., to include Flint in the final bill are a massive win for Michigan residents, he said.
“I’m optimistic and I think it has support in the leadership in the House, the Senate and the president,” he said.
