Michigan Dems press for Flint aid in spending bill

Democrats in the Michigan congressional delegation are urging the House Appropriations Committee to include funds in a government spending bill later this month to help the city of Flint recover from its drinking water crisis.

Congress faces an April 28 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Bipartisan negotiators in the House and Senate plan to release a spending package the last week of April when lawmakers return from recess, just days before funding runs out.

In a letter on Monday to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) and Rep. Nita Lowey (N.Y.), the panel’s top Democrat, the Michigan lawmakers requested funding for a variety of federal programs to help low-income families and prevent lead poisoning.

{mosads}The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Dan Kildee, who represents Flint, and signed by fellow Michigan Democratic Reps. Debbie Dingell, Sandy Levin, Brenda Lawrence and John Conyers. 

Congress approved $170 million in aid last December to help Flint recover from the lead contamination, which was caused by water from the Flint River corroding pipes. But the lawmakers said that the work in helping Flint rebuild isn’t yet over.

“As a result of the water crisis, nearly 100,000 people in Flint have been exposed to lead — a dangerous neurotoxin that has lifelong impacts on people, especially pregnant women and children. Childhood lead exposure can result in decreased bone and muscle growth, speech problems, and damage to the nervous system.”

“Without additional help from the federal government, the people of Flint may not be able to fully recover,” they wrote.

The lawmakers requested continuing emergency funds for Head Start and Early Head Start in Flint to expand programs for preschoolers affected by the lead-contaminated water and funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention program to provide guidance about childhood lead poisoning.

They also asked for increasing funds for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Healthy Homes Program to remove lead exposure in homes. President Trump proposed increasing funds to mitigate lead-based paint and other hazards in low-income homes by $20 million in his 2018 budget, which the lawmakers said they support.

But some programs the lawmakers said would help the Flint recovery efforts were proposed for cuts in Trump’s budget, like the 21st Century Community Learning Centers to support before school, after school and summer school programs and funds from the Community Development Block Grant to rebuild Flint’s infrastructure.

Another request made by the lawmakers would relieve restrictions on how states can use resources from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for debt relief, which was included in the stopgap spending bill passed by Congress in December.

“Your full support for these requests will allow the people of Flint to continue on a path of recovery from this terrible man-made crisis,” the letter concludes.