The deal to head off a government shutdown this weekend includes hundreds of millions of dollars for the Great Lakes and drinking water systems. WKSU’s M.L. Schultze reports that Ohio’s Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown says it’s a good step, but broader investment is needed.
Senate Democrats had threatened to block a short-term spending measure that takes effect Saturday unless House Republicans included money to address the Flint drinking water crisis.
The compromise includes $170 million for Flint and $300 million a year for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Brown says investments in infrastructure should be a given.
“It’s what built the most prosperous country in the history of the world, from the 40s, after the war into the 1980s, when state government and federal government believed in investing in public works, infrastructure: water, sewer, airports, community college highways, bridges. We don’t do that the way we did and we’re a poorer country as a result.”
Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs, whose district includes much of Stark and Tuscarawas County, chaired the committee that came up with the bipartisan water bill.
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