The Senate Accomplished Something - And It's at Least Partly Good

“It breaks my heart,” [California Senator Barbara] Boxer said during a lengthy and impassioned floor speech on Friday. “Here I am, standing up, making a big fuss over my own bill, saying vote no. It’s really painful for me to have to filibuster my own bill.”

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Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) successfully slipped in long-desired language to provide drought relief to Central and Southern California. It would temporarily relax environmental standards and instruct federal officials to divert more water to farms and other users in the federal water infrastructure in the Golden State.

[...]

After a weeklong battle over last-minute policy riders, the Senate passed [the] bill in the early morning hours Saturday that includes emergency aid for Flint, Mich., and drought relief for California.

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The underlying waterways bill, passed by the House on Thursday, deepens nationally significant ports, addresses flood risk management, helps disadvantaged communities provide safe drinking water and authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve state permitting programs for coal ash.

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It authorizes $170 million in aid for the drinking water crisis in Flint, where water from the Flint River corroded the pipes and contaminated the city’s water supply with lead.

  The Hill

I wonder how many Flint residents have died or fallen ill between the time the story broke and now.

The nearly $12 billion measure, which authorizes 30 new infrastructure projects around the country, now heads to the president’s desk.

I assume he's going to sign it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.