Erin Kelly

USAToday

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators blocked a vote Tuesday to advance a Republican bill to keep the government open past Friday, because it did not include federal aid to help clean up lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Mich.

Senators voted 45-55 to advance the legislation, falling 15 votes short of the 60 needed to move the bill forward. A dozen Republicans joined 40 Democrats and two independents in opposing the proposal.

Congress must act by midnight Friday to prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 1, when fiscal 2017 begins. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said senators would "continue working on this important matter" and hold another vote soon.

McConnell, R-Ky., unveiled a proposal last week that would fund the government at existing levels through Dec. 9 to give lawmakers time to negotiate a bigger agreement to fund federal agencies through September 2017. It also would have provided $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus and $500 million in aid to the flood-ravaged states of Louisiana, Maryland and West Virginia.

Democrats support those measures, but they were upset that Republicans did not include $220 million to help pay for a new water system for Flint, Mich., where residents have been poisoned by lead-contaminated drinking water. Democrats argue that Flint residents are victims of a disaster and deserve emergency aid just like the people of Louisiana.

"The Republican (proposal) ignores a two and a half year crisis in Flint, Michigan," said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Lead has poisoned all 100,000 people, almost 10,000 children, some of whom are babies. Lead is a killer for children. A child who ingests lead in any way... (it) will affect them the rest of their lives. They won't be as smart as they could be. They won't be as agile as they could be. It really hurts them."

McConnell complained that Democrats keep changing what they want in the funding deal. He said he is giving Democrats what they have been seeking for months: $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus with no "poison pills" to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding or to waive federal environmental laws governing the use of pesticides to kill mosquitoes. Zika is spread by mosquitoes and through sexual contact.

Congress returns with just weeks to prevent government shutdown

McConnell's proposal also included full 2017 funding for military construction and veterans programs and about $7 million over the next 10 weeks to begin paying for new federal programs approved by Congress to fight heroin addiction and prescription painkiller abuse.

"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 said. "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."

McConnell said the $220 million for Flint was already approved by the Senate as part of a sweeping water projects bill called the Water Resources Development Act. But the House has not yet passed the bill, and its version does not include money for Flint.

House leaders have indicated that they expect the Flint aid to be included in a final bill, but Democrats don't trust them. Democrats said their distrust was underscored Monday night when the House Rules Committee ruled against allowing a vote on an amendment by Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., to add Flint aid to the water bill.

"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?" Reid said. "But they ignore that. They ignore the people of Flint."

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the aid for Flint would be paid for by rescinding a credit subsidy for automakers for loans issued after Oct. 1, 2020. That subsidy costs the government about $250 million.

"We took the extra step because of the urgency and the dire circumstances in the city of Flint," she said. "It costs nothing to do this."

McConnell offers plan to fund government, fight Zika