Flint Hit With Bacterial Illness As Residents Avoid City Water
Photo of Flint, Michigan protest courtesy of ABC.
Photo of Flint, Michigan protest courtesy of ABC.
The Michigan Legislature has approved a bill that will send $100 million in federal funding to Flint.
The approved bill is on its way to Gov. Rick Snyder after a disagreement and one legislative "mulligan." The bill was supposed to be finalized on April 26 but was delayed, because it originally contained a $3 million grant to help another Michigan county fix a sinkhole. The House and Senate could not agree on if the $3 million should come in the form of a grant or a loan.
Ultimately, the House and Senate decided to take the funds from a road repair program. However, in the process of taking after out the sinkhole funding from the bill, a technical error had been made, resulting in the "mulligan."
"This is our mulligan. We sent it over there and there were a couple things that were not done correctly. It had actually got by three people reading it and still was wrong," Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive), said to MLive.
The Senate finally reconsidered the bill on April 27 and it was approved unanimously, with the House following suit and approving it as well.
The people of Flint have been without clean water for three years now, resulting in the city scurrying to create plans to fix the problem, as well as residents suing because of the water crisis. The federal funding Flint will receive (if Gov. Snyder approves of the bill) will likely be a part of the city's plan to replace 18,000 water lines.
A month ago the city agreed to replace at least 18,000 lead or galvanized steel water lines by 2020, with the state picking up the bill with its own money, along with federal funding.
