Senate blocks stopgap bill to fund government
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nev. spoke to reporters during a Sept. 13 news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
WASHINGTON » The Senate today stumbled over a must-do bill to prevent the government from shutting down this weekend and to fund the fight against the Zika virus. Democrats, demanding money so Flint, Michigan, can address its lead-contaminated water crisis, overwhelmingly opposed the measure, as did a dozen of the Senate’s most conservative members.
The 45-55 vote stalls the stopgap funding bill — for now at least — and is exasperating top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made several concessions to Democrats in weeks of negotiations over the measure.
The GOP defections left McConnell, R-Ky., short of a simple majority, much less the 60 votes needed to clear a filibuster hurdle.
Republican leaders are promising to address the Flint issue after the election in a separate water resources bill, but Democrats refuse to take them at their word.
“‘Trust me we will consider Flint later’ — that’s like nothing to me,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Democrats say that it’s unfair that the water crisis in Flint has gone on for more than a year with no assistance, while Louisiana and other states are getting $500 million for floods that occurred just last month. Democrats have played a strong hand in the negotiations and know they have leverage because Republicans controlling the House and Senate are eager to avoid a politically harmful shutdown at midnight on Friday.
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“Democrats have been clear that Congress should not leave Flint and other lead-tainted communities out of any (stopgap spending) negotiation that includes emergency disaster funding,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other top Democrats in a letter this morning to McConnell.
McConnell characterized the Democratic position as “no Flint, no flood” and indicated he is considering dropping the flood aid.
The stopgap spending bill would keep the government running through Dec. 9 and provide $1.1 billion in long-delayed funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus and develop a vaccine and improved tests to detect it. Zika can cause can cause grave birth defects.
McConnell has made numerous concessions in weeks of negotiations on the measure, agreeing, for instance, to drop contentious provisions tied to Zika funding that led Democrats to filibuster prior Zika measures this summer and earlier this month. A provision to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for new anti-Zika funding for Puerto Rico was dropped, as was a provision to ease pesticide regulations under the Clean Water Act. A $400 million package of spending cuts added to the measure is no longer controversial.
The measure also includes a popular full-year spending bill that provides a 4 percent budget increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“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, as he opened the Senate today. “It’s almost as if a few Democratic leaders decided long ago that bringing our country to the brink would make for good election-year politics.”
Republicans say the Flint issue will be handled in a separate measure to authorize water development projects. That measure — without Flint money — is set for a House floor debate today, but Republicans are telegraphing it will be included in any final measure handled in a postelection session. But GOP leaders on Monday night blocked Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich. — who represents Flint — from getting a vote on the Senate measure.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., today said that the water development bill “is the better place to address this.”
The White House, which has not transmitted an official request for Flint aid, poked at Ryan for excluding it from the water projects bill.
“The speaker of the House says he opposes adding funding for Flint to the continuing resolution and believes that it should be handled in the water resources bill. But it’s not included in the water resources bill that’s advancing through the House. And then he has the nerve to suggest that it’s Democrats who are the ones causing problems,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
32 responses to “Senate blocks stopgap bill to fund government”
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Why do Republicans want Flint residents to suffer a minimal two more months with tainted water? They can’t act now to finance fixing the problem?
We know the Republicans are notorious for opposing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as corporate money is so much better than clean air and water to them. So, no surprise, really, that they are in no hurry to have to use money to fix a polluted water system.
Re-read the article. A majority of Democrats voted to black this bill, only 10 Repub’s. I know you kool-aid drinkers like to re-invent the facts, but it ain’t flying anymore.
Perhaps you should read the article.
So, when the GOP blocks legislation for their beliefs, it’s terrible, but when democrats do it, we need to re read the article?
I did read.
“Republican leaders are promising to address the Flint issue after the election..”
That’s what prompted my questioning, as the Flint problem has been going on for years, why wait any longer?
Why isn’t the State of Michigan addressing the problem?
Hey seaborn….to quote Hillary….”what difference does it make?” One more month…
Wrong sport, the reason the bill is blocked is because the Republican bill will only address problems in red states while Flint was told to wait. They could have easily included it in this bill but republican leadership chose otherwise.
So, exactly how is he wrong? Sport?
Hey sport the implication is the Dems were the ones forcing this showdown. No my friend the republicans with their refusal to address the Flint water crisis is forcing this showdown. Hell man the republicans can’t even get a simple majority on their own legislation. What losers they are.
So, you’re talking implications, whereas peanut simply stated facts, which means he’s right and you’re wrong. Man up, sport, you blew it.
Wassup, SA?
The more important question is, Why did the Democratic controlled State of Michigan and City of Flint poison their citizens with tainted water?
IT’s time that this country replace the republican party representatives with DEMOCRATES!
Will they teach us how to spell?
Hahaha!
Sure. Then the whole country could have lead poisoning and be out of work, like those great Democrat cities of Flint and Detroit.
Politics at it’s worse. Why all the the add-ons…These jerks never stick to issues.
What people don’t understand is that Riders are the major cause of Bills being blocked. The media only mentions the actual Bill and almost never mention the Riders which many times has nothing in common with the actual Bill. This makes the political party blocking the Bill look bad when they’re actually blocking it because they don’t like one or more of the many Riders in that Bill.
HELLO… it was the “democrats” that blocked the bill, not the republicans. If it had been the other way around, the headline would scream: “Evil Republicans Vote to Shut Down Government”.
(wonder why the headline wasn’t: “Democrats blocks stopgap bill to fund government” ?????)
Republicans: “We want the lead poisoning in Flint to continue until later.” Democrats: “Let’s do something NOW.”
Why is a US problem and not their states problem.
So why don’t they introduce a separate bill for the Flint problem instead as a Rider to this Stop Gap Funding Bill? Is it one of those “I won’t vote for it unless you fund my project” type of deal?
Hey CriticalReader, it was the Democrats that led Flint when they poisoned the water. Where were the Democrats THEN?
Why don’t you report how our two Senators voted? Why are you protecting them?
Slippery slope.
I’m thinking that this year’s Congressional elections will have a more significant impact on the nation than the Presidential election will.
Shut down the government – it’s been done before and the country didn’t wilt and die. What does irk me is that all the government workers get paid while on their “shutdown vacation”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made several concessions to Democrats in weeks of negotiations over the measure. Seem’s he’s always making concessions to the Democrats.
Why should anyone believe “Turkey neck” McConnell, who can’t lead his group of GoP out of a wet paper bag? The man has proven he cannot lead the Senate as he has promised to do; time to get rid of the old guard incumbents (both Democrat and Rescrublican!) TERM LIMITS FOR ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, NO MORE CAREER POLITICIANS!
“McConnell has made numerous concessions in weeks of negotiations on the measure, agreeing, for instance, to drop contentious provisions tied to Zika funding that led Democrats to filibuster prior Zika measures this summer and earlier this month. A provision to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for new anti-Zika funding for Puerto Rico was dropped, as was a provision to ease pesticide regulations under the Clean Water Act. A $400 million package of spending cuts added to the measure is no longer controversial. The measure also includes a popular full-year spending bill that provides a 4 percent budget increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
And still the democrats are being pussy-cats.
This statement has never been more true, “There is no honor among thieves.”
“‘Trust me we will consider Flint later’ — that’s like nothing to me,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Oh Nancy, this also means the exact same about you. All of you are liars.
Yes, the USA holds the world title of having the most utterly incompetent bunch of thieving bureaucrats in our congress and senate.