With just four days to go before the government runs out of money to operate, Democrats helped block a short-term spending measure from moving forward Tuesday afternoon in the Senate because the legislation did not include funding to help the community of Flint, Michigan, recover from a lead water crisis that it has been grappling with for more than two years.
“Would it be asking too much for the Speaker of the House, the Republican leader of the Senate, to stand and say, we’re going to get that thing done, we’re going to pass it, we’re going to make sure that the bill that passed overwhelmingly in the Senate is going to become law? But they ignore that. They ignore the people of Flint,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said on the floor of the Senate Tuesday morning ahead of the vote.
Senators voted 55 to 45 to move the measure forward, but it needed 60 votes to advance under Senate rules. The failure opened up serious questions about how members will be able to come together to fund the government before the clock runs out.
“We want to go back to the drawing boards,” said Sen, Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Senate’s Appropriations Bill. “The clock is ticking. I think we can come to an agreement on the money now we just have to get rid of the poison pill riders.”
There were four Democrats who voted to move the measure, known as a continuing resolution, forward. There were 13 Republicans who voted to block the legislation.
Democrats and Republicans were slowly negotiating the details of a potential continuing resolution last week when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell muscled his own path forward. McConnell’s proposed CR gave Democrats some of what they wanted: it left out blocking the transfer of ICANN, an internet domain naming agency, to an international body and included a bipartisan package to fund fighting Zika and the opioid crisis.
But McConnell’s plan also put Democrats in a difficult position when his CR included some funding for flooding victims in Louisiana, but failed to include any money for Flint – a crisis in a poor African-American community that has become a symbol of gross government neglect over the last year.
McConnell has argued that a water resources bill already passed the Senate and it included funding for Flint. However, the legislation faces an uncertain future in the House of Representatives where there are still disagreements over what should be included. While leaders promise the legislation will get resolved, it is still a slower moving vehicle to aid the people of Flint than the must-pass CR.
On Tuesday morning, McConnell accused the Democrats of wanting a shut down to score political points.
“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, and then they’ve just made up the rationale as they go,” McConnell charged on the Senate floor Tuesday.
gop can’t govern.
This is completely stupid for the Republicans to do, because they have several candidates on the edge and the last thing they need is to give them a push off the cliff. Shutting down the government by not giving funding to black kids who have been poisoned by lead makes them look like horrible people and will link them to the racists pushing Trump. It’s not even that much funding.
Not that I’m complaining, the more seats the Democrats win the better. I’m just amazed that the Republicans could be this incompetent so close to the election.
If there is a government shutdown it will be viewed as the Republicans fault which could affect the elections. Let’s go for a government shutdown folks. Make the GOP choke on it.
Playing partisan politics with the lives of the poor…nice one GOP. If i was a dem i wouldn’t assume that the House will fund it either
Your move, McConnell. And lest we forget, “that bringing our country to the brink…for good election-year politics…” is a GOP speciality! More projection from the Party of No. Disgusting, one might say “deplorable”.
P.S. He must have forgotten about this: