A fight over emergency funding to help Flint, Mich., out of its lead-water crisis is the latest obstacle to passing a short-term funding bill, and is threatening to force a partial government shutdown if the two parties can’t find an agreement in the next few weeks.
Democrats plan to block a last-minute funding deal offered by Republicans because it doesn’t include any emergency money for Flint, which switched its source of water in 2014 to the Flint River, which was so polluted that the water eroded the lead pipes leading to people’s homes.
The two parties have debated for months exactly how to help the city, but now the fight has become a real hurdle to passing a spending bill that would also fund efforts to fight the Zika virus. Without a new funding bill by Sept. 30, the federal government would face a partial shutdown.
A vote on the measure is scheduled for Tuesday in the Senate, but without money for Flint, Democrats are opposed. Michigan Democrats note that the bill includes $500 million in disaster aid for flood damage in Louisiana and other states, but say it leaves Flint behind.
“I am not going to support an effort that says to the people of Flint, ‘you don’t count,'” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Thursday in a Senate floor speech. “We care about the people in Louisiana. Oh, they count. But people in Flint, Michigan don’t count.”
Democrats gathered shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., introduced the bill, and decided to block the measure when it comes to the floor for a vote next week, according to a Democratic aide.
“That’s where it looks like we’re headed,” the aide said. Another Democratic leadership aide said if Republicans added money for Flint, the measure would likely pass.
Senate Democrats said they hope to continue negotiating. Republicans need four Democrats to reach the 60 vote threshold needed to advance the bill to a final vote.
The mood among Democrats is the same in the House. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters that some Democrats “are saying they’re not voting for anything that doesn’t have Flint in it.”
Republicans may have a backup plan for Flint: they are hoping to satisfy Democrats by adding Flint aid to a separate measure authorizing federal water projects. But it’s not clear that will satisfy Democrats.
The Senate in September passed a water authorization bill that includes $220 million for Flint, much of it in the form of grants that can be immediately accessed and used to stem the water crisis there.
House lawmakers will vote on their own version of the water projects bill this week, and according to a source familiar with the legislation, the $220 million for Flint will “likely” be added to the bill next week, before it reaches the floor.
A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said no decisions have been made on adding Flint aid to the huge spending bill, but Ryan told reporters Thursday said the water bill is the only appropriate place for it, if it is considered by Congress at all.
“That is a water resources bill,” Ryan said. “That’s where that belongs, that conversation.”
