Senate Passes Bill To Keep U.S. Government Open, Provide Zika Aid

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

WASHINGTON (CBSMiami/AP) — The Senate has passed a bill to keep the U.S. government open, while also providing $1.1 billion to battle the Zika virus.

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

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the breakthrough on Flint "will help unlock" the short-term government spending bill, which has been stalled in the Senate.

The deal averts a potential federal shutdown and comes just three days before the midnight deadline to keep the government open. It caps a lengthy battle over Zika spending, a months' long struggle over Flint and late pressure to provide flood aid to Louisiana. The politicking and power plays enormously complicated what should have been a routine measure to avoid an election-eve government shutdown.

"We had a small victory today in our ongoing fight against the Zika virus," Sen. Bill Nelson said. "The emergency spending approved today will help increase local mosquito-control efforts to contain the spread of the virus and allow federal researchers to continue their search for a vaccine. The threat we face from Zika is a true public health emergency and we need our local, state and federal agencies working together to put this money to use as quickly as possible."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that he is "hopeful that we will soon reach an agreement with our Democratic colleagues to move forward" on the stopgap spending bill measure and Zika aid.

The $1.1 billion in long-delayed funding will help fight the spread of the Zika virus, develop a vaccine and improved tests to detect it. Zika can cause can cause grave birth defects.

As of Wednesday, there were 109 non-travel related cases in Florida and 693 travel-related cases. Of those cases, 91 pregnant women have been infected.

Related: Dade Officials Release Locations Where Mosquitoes Tested Positive For Zika

While Zika has long been a hurdle to climb over, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan created a new stalemate as of late.

After meeting with McConnell Wednesday morning, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada said that "I am convinced that there's going to be help for Flint" in the post-election lame duck session and said that the stopgap spending measure should advance as early as Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats and a dozen of the chamber's most conservative Republicans joined to block the temporary spending bill. Democrats said help for Flint, Michigan and its lead-contaminated water had to advance immediately and they were not willing to accept a promise that it will come after the election.

The Flint measure, set for a vote Wednesday as an amendment to a separate water projects bill, would authorize $170 million to help Flint and other cities with water emergencies. The actual funding would be provided after the election in the final version of the water measure.

Charges of racism and campaign-season antagonism between Republicans and Democrats had slowed efforts to pass the spending measure. Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee, Flint's congressman, had accused Republicans of ignoring the plight of predominantly black Flint because Republicans would not permit a vote on a Senate aid package to deliver the money now.

But Wednesday morning Kildee issued a statement that called Wednesday's vote on the non-binding $170 million promise for Flint "a step forward to ensuring that Flint families get the resources they need to recover from this crisis." The $220 million Senate measure, which passed earlier this month, earmarked $120 million for Flint.

The House was expected to vote on the water legislation containing the Flint provision on Wednesday. The amendment represents a bipartisan agreement authorizing the funding, but the actual money would await the final House-Senate version of the bill after the November election.

The spending bill also contains $500 million to help Louisiana and other states rebuild from recent floods and full-year funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Democrats argued it's unfair that the water crisis in Flint has gone on for more than a year with no assistance, while Louisiana and other states are getting $500 million for floods that occurred just last month. Democrats have played a strong hand in the negotiations and had leverage because Republicans controlling the House and Senate were eager to avoid a politically harmful shutdown some six weeks to the election.

McConnell has made numerous concessions in weeks of negotiations, agreeing, for instance, to drop contentious provisions tied to Zika funding that led Democrats to block prior Zika measures. A provision to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for new anti-Zika funding for Puerto Rico was dropped, as was a provision to ease pesticide regulations under the Clean Water Act. A $400 million package of spending cuts added to the measure is no longer controversial.

This stopgap spending bill will keep the government running through Dec. 9th.

Click here for more information on the Zika virus or here for more Zika-related stories.

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)