It has been well over a year since the world learned that Flint was in the throes of an environmental disaster.
In the early months of this year, the Flint water crisis brought a steady stream of political leaders promising aid and vowing this would never happen again: President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, President-elect Trump.
So here we are, at year's end, and Flint hasn't seen a penny of that promised federal aid to help replace its damaged lead water pipes. And now there's a new curve ball that could threaten that federal funding.
Flint's Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee joined Stateside to talk about what is holding up the funding in Congress.
What's at stake is a multi-billion dollar water projects bill, the Water Resources Defense Act. The bill would use as much as $170 million to help the city of Flint and surrounding areas replace old pipes and create a loan forgiveness provision, among other things.
So what is threatening the bill? There was a last-minute provision added that is unrelated to Flint that involves helping drought conditions in California by changing rules on dams and other infrastructure. These rules are not sitting well with environmentalists and are holding up the entire bill.
Listen to the full interview above to hear more about the challenges with getting this bill passed and where we are with the Flint water crisis.
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