Cruz lifts hold on bill to resolve Flint water crisis

The deal follows weeks of negotiations on how to provide emergency aid to Flint, where drinking water became tainted when the city switched from the Detroit water system and began drawing from the Flint River in 2014 to save money.

Elevated levels of lead have been found in some children’s blood. With regard to Flint, 95 percent said it is important or very important for officials to invest in water infrastructure to prevent a repeat of the MI crisis in their neighborhoods.

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz of Texas and other Republican senators are holding up bipartisan legislation to address the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. It also can cause learning disabilities and behavioral problems in children.

Lawmakers hope to vote on the bill as early as next week. He plans to end it with an evening rally at Chicago State University.

The proposal requires that before receiving any of the $100 million funds through the Drinking Water Revolving Fund, a potential recipient must provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a detailed report on how the funding would be used and it must be approved by the EPA before financing is obligated. The city has been suffering from their local water supply poisoning the residents, but it looks like Cruz has prioritized campaigning for president over helping those in need. That’s roughly half what the people in Flint are paying for the water they can not now drink. All funds not obligated in 18 months would be transferred for use in a new fund being created to help pay for low-interest water infrastructure loans across the country.

He also said that if this were a poor country, not having clean drinking water might be understandable.

In previous debates, Sanders called for a heightened response from the federal goverment to help the people of Flint. On Thursday she asked the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority about its efforts to avoid a similar crisis, citing the District’s own lead contamination dilemma more than 10 years ago.