When Was The Bill For Flint Michigan Repair Introduced In Congress
Senate Approves Funding for Flintstone H2o Crunch
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Th approved legislation to spend $270 million to aid the residents of Flint, Mich., and other poor communities that have suffered from lead-contaminated h2o, attaching the funds to a broader beak authorizing $9 billion to repair ports, dams, levees and other water infrastructure in 17 states.
The measure, the H2o Resource Development Human activity, includes no firsthand funding for that water infrastructure; rather, it maps out projects that would be eligible for hereafter federal spending from Congress'due south appropriations committees. Lawmakers have used past water resources bills to brag to their constituents about projects that may never exist funded.
All the same, the Flint spending, if it also passes the House, would have effect immediately. Michigan'southward senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, both Democrats, spent months pushing for coin to help their country recover from the water crisis. Its addition to the water resource bill came subsequently the senators sought unsuccessfully to attach information technology to other pieces of legislation, and to move information technology as a stand up-alone bill.
The Michigan lawmakers sacrificed some other land priority to pay for the safe drinking h2o programs. The Flintstone provisions would exist covered past cutting $300 million in spending on Energy Section research on advanced vehicle engineering.
The measure passed on an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 95-3.
"Today's passage is an important reminder to the nation that the crisis in Flint is far from over," Ms. Stabenow said in a statement. "Today, families still cannot beverage the unfiltered water that comes out of their faucets! At present, our colleagues in the House need to act as quickly every bit possible. It'south also essential that the State of Michigan fully meet their responsibilities to solve the water crisis."
The Flint package would provide $100 million in grants to assist states with drinking water emergencies and $seventy million to subsidize loans for water infrastructure projects. It would provide $50 million in grants to help pocket-sized and disadvantaged communities comply with drinking h2o standards, $thirty meg in grants to reduce lead exposure among children, and $20 one thousand thousand to develop a national lead exposure registry.
The broader bill is less than it may announced, said Stephen Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based group. "The bill authorizes a lot, just spends only a piddling," he said.
Of the direct spending to assistance Flint and similarly afflicted communities, he said, "The question will be whether Congress will make this a priority in the future, or is this just a flash in the plan."
The House is expected to have up a smaller $five billion h2o infrastructure neb next week, but it does non include the Flint spending. House backers of the Flintstone spending are seeking to attach information technology to some other legislative vehicle, probably a must-pass curt-term spending bill expected to come up to the flooring this month.
"You can put information technology in the water resource bills, you tin can put it in the spending bills, as far equally I'm concerned, you could put it in the forenoon prayer, I don't care," said Representative Dan Kildee, a Democrat, who represents Flintstone. "Nosotros but need to get it to the president's desk."
Some House Republicans, including Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, accept supported pushing the measure through.
"Today'due south Senate vote marks an of import milestone as we piece of work to fulfill our commitment to the folks of Flint," Mr. Upton said.
Still, its prospects in the House remain unclear.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/us/politics/flint-michigan-water-senate-aid.html
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