The crisis in Flint dominated the congressional agenda last week even beyond the oversight hearing, led by Senate Democrats blocking advancement of an energy bill due to its lack of dollars for a lead replacement program. Other lawmakers offered a series of bills to aid the city and to require quicker public disclosure when testing indicates the presence of lead in public water supplies.
The Senate’s energy legislation (S. 2012) was derailed after the measure failed to receive the necessary support to advance to a final vote. Michigan’s two senators had earlier offered an amendment that would provide up to $400 million to replace lead service lines in Flint, and Democrats insisted on inclusion of the provision as a condition of passing the overall bill. Subsequent versions of the amendment negotiated by the parties would have used the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) pilot program as mechanisms to deliver the funding to Michigan, but hopes for a bipartisan deal ultimately collapsed after lawmakers could not agree on how to pay for the new spending. Some Republicans also spoke out against delivering a massive amount of money to Flint before an actual plan was in place to repair the city’s infrastructure.
Senators were expected to continue negotiating a path forward over the weekend and could revisit the issue (and the overall energy bill) this week.
In the House of Representatives, Reps. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) introduced their own proposal (H.R. 4470, the “Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Act”) that would require EPA to step in and deliver public notification if a utility fails to promptly notify the public when testing detects concentrations of lead and other contaminants that carry the potential for serious adverse human health effects. The bill would also direct EPA to work with water utilities to develop a strategic plan for communicating risks associated with lead in water systems and would require water systems to notify persons who may be affected by “an exceedance, in their drinking water, of a lead action level.”
H.R. 4470 is supported by the entire Michigan House delegation, and Rep. Upton said he believes the House could consider and pass the bill as early as this week.
Several others bills introduced in the aftermath of the Flint crisis likely face a tougher path to enactment due to their high price tags. These include:
- The “Families of Flint Act” (H.R. 4479), sponsored by Rep. Kildee. The bill would provide the city with a $385 million grant (subject to a state match) to replace lead service lines, plus additional dollars to support early education initiatives and health monitoring services for the people of Flint.
- H.R. 4438, the "Drinking Water Contamination Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act," introduced by Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.). The bill would provide a $1 billion grant to Michigan to pay for efforts to replace lead-tainted pipes in Flint.
- The “Water Investment Trust Fund Act” (H.R. 4468). Sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), the bill mirrors his previous legislative proposals to establish a drinking water and wastewater infrastructure trust fund, but which have never gained traction in Congress. According to Rep. Blumenauer the bill would “provide needed revenue for states and local governments to make overdue investments in wastewater and drinking water infrastructure and will also take a hard look at the systemic challenges affecting access to safe water in low-income populations.” The legislation would allow companies to voluntarily contribute to the trust fund with dollars then distributed to states as grants and loans via the existing SRF programs.