WATER FIGHT: A bipartisan water bill may be in danger in the Senate because of the last-minute inclusion of controversial California drought language.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate’s number two Democrat, said there’s “probably” enough opposition in his party to block the water legislation from moving forward in the chamber.
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“What [Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] and [Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)] are trying to do is very controversial within our caucus,” Durbin told reporters Tuesday.
Durbin continued, “I haven’t whipped it, but there’s pretty strong sentiment opposed to it, and I would say that probably we do” have 41 votes to defeat the bill on procedural grounds.
The package authorizes water-related infrastructure projects around the country and emergency aid for the community of Flint, Mich., which has a contaminated water supply.
But McCarthy and Feinstein slipped in controversial language to provide drought relief to central and southern California. It would temporarily relax environmental standards and instruct federal officials to divert more water to farms and other users in the federal water infrastructure there.
Some Democrats, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calf.), oppose the provisions, warning it could hurt the fishery industry and endangered species in California.
The burgeoning battle over the waterways bill sets up some last-week drama in Congress, where members are hoping to close up work on legislation like this one (and a spending bill) before adjourning for the holidays.
Boxer opposes the bill and has sought to organize Democrats against it. But the measure has other attractive provisions in it, namely getting money for the Flint water crisis.
Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, both Democrats, said they support the package because it authorizes funding for the city.
Stabenow predicted the Senate may not get to the bill until the weekend. But she said she thinks, right now, “it’s very unlikely that the votes are there.”
Read more, from The Hill’s Melanie Zanona, here.
CR WOULD GIVE $170M FOR FLINT: While the waterways legislation authorizes spending on Flint, actual funding for the city is due to move in another bill.
The continuing resolution to fund the government through April 28 is due to include a $170 million appropriation for Flint, and other cities with drinking water contamination.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior House Appropriations Committee member, said the money would be in the bill due to be released at some point Tuesday night.
It would complement an authorization for the funds in the water resources bill. But both bills must pass in order for the money to be spent.
Stabenow slammed Republicans’ decision to break the authorization and appropriation into two bills, and then put contentious drought language in the water bill.
“The families of Flint, are being held hostage at the moment, which I think is terrible,” she told reporters.
“Instead of having the full package go together, they divided it up, the authorization in one bill and funding in the other, to try to put some poison pill, very controversial, amendments on the [Water Resources Development Act] bill.”
Cole said the bill will also include aid for Louisiana and other areas that have suffered severe floods, although he did not know how much.
“I know the funding is there in a way that has met the needs, as I understand it, of the people that represent the areas where the flooding occurred,” he said.
Read more here.
PIPELINE PROTESTERS: The leader of the American Indian tribe at the center of the Dakota Access pipeline fight is asking the thousands of protesters camped out at a construction site in North Dakota to leave now that the project has been halted.
Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said in an open letter that after the Army Corps of Engineers declined to grant the pipeline’s final easement Sunday, there’s no need to carry on with the protest.
“This decision is everything we had asked for: a non-granting of the easement, initiating an Environmental Impact Study, and suggestive of a reroute. We got it!” Archambault exclaimed. “Energy Transfer Partners will face an uphill battle in trying to dismantle the process initiated by this decision.”
The protest camp has been an enduring symbol of the fight, inspiring environmentalists, indigenous rights activists and others around the world to either protest closer to home or travel to North Dakota.
Read more here.
SENATORS CLASH OVER MINERS’ PENSIONS: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he is insisting that the continuing resolution include language to shore up the pension fund for coal miners.
But Democrats balked, saying that the measure is insufficient, since it would only go through April 28, when the funding bill expires.
“We don’t agree with that,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters. “We think it should be a full five-year funding provision.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and numerous other senators say they will hold up quick passage of legislation through the Senate until they get a long-term bill for miners’ pensions.
“I hope that my colleagues would understand where I’m coming from and I would hope they would understand and be with me on this for the sake of all these families and all these widows and all these miners who have given so much to our country,” he said.
Read more here.
ON TAP WEDNESDAY: Jonathan Pershing, President Obama’s special envoy for climate change, will speak at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event on last month’s United Nations climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco.
AROUND THE WEB:
The Environmental Protection Agency says an oil plume spotted on the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., last week, came from a power plant in Maryland, the Washington Post reports.
Enbridge Energy Partners officials tell the Grand Forks Herald they expect to complete their Line 3 pipeline project, which travels from Alberta to Wisconsin. The deal won regulatory approval in Canada last week.
Google says that it will run on 100 percent renewable energy by next year, the New York Times reports.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Tuesday’s stories …
-Tribe’s chairman asks Dakota pipeline protesters to go home
-House passes National Park Service centennial bill
-Weather Channel strikes back at Breitbart
-Senate Dems may block water bill over drought language
-Funding measure to include $170M for Flint
-Senate battles over miners deal
-Scientists tell Trump to pay attention to climate change
-Five things to watch in Dakota Access pipeline fight
Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@digital-release.thehill.com; and Devin Henry, dhenry@digital-release.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @dhenry, @thehill