Senate OKs spending bill, Zika funding

Averting an election-year crisis, the Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to keep the government operating through Dec. 9 and provide $1.1 billion in long-delayed funding to battle the Zika virus. The House is expected to follow suit.

The sweeping 72-26 vote came after top congressional leaders broke through a stalemate over aid to help Flint, Mich., address its water crisis. Democratic advocates for Flint are now satisfied with Republican assurances that the funding will be finalized after the election.

The hybrid spending measure is the last major item on Capitol Hill’s pre-election agenda and caps months of wrangling over money to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The spending bill also includes $500 million for rebuilding assistance to flood-ravaged Louisiana and other states.

The House easily passed a water development projects bill after ratifying, by a 284141 vote, a compromise $170 million Flint aid package. The move to add the Flint package to the bill, negotiated by top leaders in both parties, was the key to lifting the Democratic blockade on the must-pass spending bill.

The deal averts a potential federal shutdown and comes just three days before the midnight deadline. It defuses a lengthy, frustrating battle over Zika spending. Democrats claimed a partial victory on Flint while the GOP-dominated Louisiana delegation won a down-payment on Obama’s $2.6 billion aid request for their state.

The politicking and power plays complicated what should have been a routine measure to avoid an election-eve government shutdown.

The temporary government-wide spending bill stalled in the Senate on Tuesday over Democrats’ demands that the measure include $220 million in Senate-passed funding to help Flint and other cities deal with lead-tainted water. Democrats said they were not willing to accept a promise that Flint funding would come after the election, but they won stronger assurances from top GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and agreed to address the city’s crisis in the separate water development bill.

The spending bill also includes full-year funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.