"This funding measure does not contain a single penny for Flint, Michigan," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. | AP Photo Congress Democrats dig in with shutdown days away They feel like they have leverage and are pushing for money for Flint.

As Congress careens toward a potential government shutdown, Democrats are dragging the funding fight to the brink and hoping to squeeze the GOP.

The smart bet is still that Congress will pass some sort of stopgap bill to keep the government running past Friday. Neither party wants to risk being blamed for a shutdown just weeks before the presidential election.


But Democrats are driving a hard bargain: They say any government funding bill must include federal aid to address the water crisis in Flint. It’s a potentially risky move, but Democrats are betting they can either force Republicans to bend, or paint the GOP as indifferent to the people of Flint and responsible for Capitol Hill’s deepening dysfunction.

"This funding measure does not contain a single penny for Flint, Michigan," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor Monday. "The people of Flint, Michigan have been waiting for emergency assistance to clean their poisoned water for more than a year."

The Senate is scheduled to hold a key procedural vote Tuesday on a proposal introduced by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But that measure, which would fund the federal government through Dec. 9, is expected to fall short of the 60 vote threshold needed to advance.

The biggest complaint from Democrats is that the bill includes $500 million to address flooding in Louisiana and natural disasters in other states, but no money for Flint, which is still dealing with the consequences of lead-contaminated drinking water.

Top Democrats think it's a political miscalculation for Republicans to be excluding assistance to a largely African-American community with high rates of poverty. Reid said it was "callous" of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to refer to the calamity in Flint as “other people’s grief.”

One potential resolution to the impasse is for McConnell to remove the money for Louisiana. "Is their solution now to remove help for flood victims?" McConnell asked on the floor Monday. "If their solution is to remove help for flood victims, they should say so." But Democrats might accept that, reasoning that they could return in the lame duck and press for aid for both communities. In recent weeks, Democrats have insisted that any aid for floods be coupled with aid for Flint.

McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have been eager to show voters that Republicans can govern responsibly and have downplayed the latest skirmish. Ryan told CBS’ John Dickerson in an interview that aired Sunday that there would be no government shutdown. “I’m not worried about that,” he said. “This is the typical drama.”

And top Democratic strategists argue that the public has blamed Republicans for past shutdown showdowns — giving them an advantage in this latest fight. “We see our leverage in getting Flint aid as being the fact that Republicans lose every shutdown fight,” said a senior Democratic Senate aide. “We know it. They know it.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest has said the president may not sign McConnell’s bill and urged Congress to act “without putting the American people and the American economy through another cliffhanger related to a government shutdown.”

The White House Office of Management and Budget has begun the earliest stages of preparing for a shutdown, holding a planning call with agencies last Friday ahead of the end of the fiscal year.

“The administration strongly believes that a lapse in appropriations should not occur,” said an OMB spokesperson. “However, at this time, prudent management requires that the government plan for the possibility of a lapse and OMB is working with agencies to take appropriate action.”

A senior GOP Senate aide said Senate Democrats were intentionally trying to foment chaos. “They want to talk about shutdowns. They want to create chaos right before the election,” the aide said, adding that it was no coincidence the clash comes as Republican chances of holding on to the Senate majority have improved.

Republicans note there is much in the legislation for Democrats to like. It includes $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus without language that would exclude Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics from accessing federal grant dollars — a key Democratic demand that had long snarled Congress’ effort to counter the mosquito-borne virus. The bill also funds veterans programs and provides some money to implement a popular law signed in July to curb prescription opioid addiction.

And despite a strong push from conservatives like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the backing of GOP nominee Donald Trump, the bill does not include language to block the Obama administration from relinquishing oversight of the Internet domain system to an international body. It’s a “clean” bill, McConnell boasted, with no controversial policy riders.

Democrats don’t fully agree. They are irritated that the legislation prohibits the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring corporations to disclose political spending. That provision simply maintains current law, making it harder for Democrats to demand its removal since they permitted it in last year’s omnibus, but it offers them a chance to slam the GOP as beholden to corporate interests.

Ahead of Tuesday’s procedural vote to end Senate debate on the package, aides were predicting the parties would remain largely united. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, has said he would support the so-called continuing resolution since it provides money to take on Zika, which has spread quickly in the Sunshine State. Other Democrats from states that would receive disaster aid in the bill, like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, might also buck party leaders.

But McConnell can’t count on keeping all Republicans on his side; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he will oppose the bill because it would not lift financing restrictions on the Export-Import Bank. Cruz and other conservatives might also defect.

Ryan and other Republicans argue that any debate on Flint aid should take place on water infrastructure legislation moving through Congress. The Senate passed that bill, which includes $220 million for Flint and other communities with failing infrastructure, on a 95-3 vote earlier this month. But the House version of the Water Resources Development Act, which is set for floor action this week, does not include any money for Flint.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) has promised that any final negotiations on the bill, which would conclude in a December session, will end with Flint aid. But Democrats are skeptical after months of GOP resistance.

“I’m not going to accept, on faith, that if we leave Flint behind in the CR, somehow there will be an epiphany between now and December, and what they oppose today, they will suddenly embrace then,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.). “Nobody would buy that. It doesn’t make sense.”

Kildee noted that Democrats will be crucial to helping House GOP leadership carry any stop-gap spending bill approved by the Senate across the finish line; many conservative Republicans wanted a long-term CR to avoid a lame duck budget battle and are likely to oppose whatever the Senate passes. The conservative group Heritage Action is opposed to the CR and is warning lawmakers it will include a vote on the bill on its influential scorecard.

“Harry Reid is playing dangerous and irresponsible games with military pay, national security and critical services as he aims to shut down the federal government,” said Rep. Bill Flores of Texas, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Flores added that McConnell was “caving in to this irresponsible behavior by surrendering important conservative policies.”



Seung Min Kim and Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.