Â鶹ŮÓÅ

Congressional Republicans quietly closed a year-long investigation into Flint, Michigan's crisis over lead in its drinking water, faulting both state officials and the Environmental Protection Agency for contamination that has affected nearly 100,000 residents. In letters to fellow Republicans, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Friday that Michigan and federal officials were slow in detecting high levels of lead in the water and did not act fast enough once the problem was discovered. (Daly, 12/16)

President Barack Obama's signature of a water infrastructure projects authorization bill Friday removes the final hurdle to getting $170 million in federal aid to Flint, Mich., to help repair its lead-tainted drinking water system. The law also authorizes $11.7 billion for 30 new Army Corps of Engineers projects for waterway navigation, ecosystem restoration and natural disaster protection, and modifications of eight existing projects. And it achieves House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster's, R-Pa., ambition of keeping water infrastructure authorization on a two-year legislative cycle. (Fischler, 12/16)