[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 3, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H541-H547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS: THE FLINT, MICHIGAN, WATER CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Mimi Walters of California). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2015, the gentlewoman from New 
Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman) is recognized for 60 minutes as the 
designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
to include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from New Jersey?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, the city of Flint, Michigan, has 
been hit by a crisis of massive proportion. Its impact on the long-term 
health and future success of its residents remains unclear.
  The fact I find most disturbing is that it is a completely manmade 
crisis. It grew out of the same kind of stubborn faith in austerity 
measures that has handicapped our ability to govern for years. It grew 
out of a failure to protect the Flint River from environmental damage. 
It grew out of both a failure to invest in Flint's crumbling 
infrastructure and in the willful disregard for the people of that 
city, a city in which more than 40 percent of the residents live below 
the poverty line and in which the majority of families are African 
American.
  My colleagues and I are here on the floor this evening to urge every 
Member of this body to understand one thing: If we fail to acknowledge 
the issues that led to the Flint water crisis, we will see similar and 
equally devastating events in more and more cities across the country.
  We need to recognize that tunnel vision for deficit reduction creates 
more problems than it solves. The emergency manager appointed by 
Governor Snyder instituted a plan to run Flint like a business in order 
to bring it back from the brink of death. In the process, he sought out 
the least expensive options for basic needs, like water. In doing so, 
he decided to pull from the corrosive and contaminated Flint River 
without ensuring the treatment protocol necessary to ensure the water 
was clean. We now know that, although the Flint River is in poor shape, 
a little additional spending could have prevented this crisis. Instead, 
Flint went the bare bones route, leaving a generation of residents to 
suffer the permanent consequences.
  Madam Speaker, Congress has, once more, been so focused on reducing 
the deficit that we have lost sight of our responsibility to govern. 
Only a few months ago did we finally abandon the absurd policy of 
sequestration, which has hampered the functioning of countless programs 
over the past several years. The benefits of austerity and small 
government are questionable at best. Flint has proven that, and we 
would all be wise to remember it.
  Unfortunately, that is not the only lesson that we can take away from 
this crisis. This Congress has made undermining environmental and 
energy regulations one of its core missions. In the first 100 days of 
the 114th Congress, it voted on more environmental and energy issues 
than on any other topic, and not a single one was aimed at protecting 
resources, like the Flint River, from the kind of contamination that 
allowed its water to corrode lead pipes.

                              {time}  1715

  If reducing the deficit has been the first priority for my colleagues 
on the other side of the aisle, allowing corporations and big 
businesses to take whatever liberties with our environment they choose 
has to be a close second.
  Under the majority of this House, our babies would choke on smog 
before we limit the amount of pollution a single smokestack can spew 
out. Our streams and rivers would poison even the fish swimming in them 
before we would set restrictions on where these companies can dump 
their chemical byproducts. Our forests and farmlands would turn barren 
before we would question the long-term impact of fracking.
  It took years to turn the Flint River into the downright dangerous 
water source that has caused so many problems. But for other rivers, 
lakes, or streams, there may still be time to repair or prevent the 
damage that we have done. Flint should move us to strengthen, not 
weaken, our environmental protections.
  Madam Speaker, there is one more lesson to learn here, and it is 
perhaps the most important. The infrastructure in Flint, like in so 
many other cities, is outdated, and no one at the local, State or 
Federal level seems willing or capable of making the necessary 
investments.
  Today in our Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, one 
of the topics of concern was that, even if individual homes had 
replaced their old lead pipes, the city's pipes would still have caused 
a major problem. Madam Speaker, that is a matter of infrastructure at 
the most basic level.
  In my home State of New Jersey, we spent more than a decade leading 
the way in the battle against lead poisoning. But with the onset of 
Governor Christie's administration, all these advances have also come 
to an abrupt halt there.
  There are now 11 cities with levels of lead higher than what has been 
reported in Flint right in my State of New Jersey. This contamination 
from lead comes from paint instead of water.

[[Page H542]]

  Nonetheless, it is a reflection of the reduction and diminution of 
services and resources to make our environment safe for our 
communities. Two of these cities are right in my district.
  Still, Governor Christie's administration has ignored the problem and 
thoroughly failed our children by choosing not to fund our State's lead 
abatement fund.
  Here at the Federal level we can take this even further. Our failure 
to invest in transportation and energy infrastructure is building up to 
a crisis of a different kind, a time when our roads, our bridges, and 
our power grids begin to fail.
  Madam Speaker, there are so many lessons we need to learn from Flint. 
I have a number of colleagues who are here with me this evening who 
have raised their voices in support of the people of Flint and who I 
know agree with me that this must be a watershed moment.
  We need to change course to prevent this from happening again and 
ensure the future of our Nation.
  Before I turn this over, I want to take a moment to add that there 
are a number of organizations, coalitions, and other associations that 
consistently are dedicated to protecting our natural resources. They 
defend the Clean Water Act, and they fight for the Clean Air Act. I 
hope to see more of them fighting for Flint in the near future.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), 
who not only represents the district in which there is Flint, but he is 
a resident born and raised in the city of Flint, Michigan.
  Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for conducting this 
Special Order and raising attention to this situation. Particularly on 
behalf of the people that I represent, the 100,000 people in my 
hometown of Flint, as difficult as this time has been, they do get some 
strength from the fact that Members of Congress from all across the 
country and, frankly, Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle 
have expressed their concern.
  It is my sincere hope that the concern expressed for the people of 
Flint will not just come in the form of sympathy, but will actually 
move us to take action.
  Let me just take a moment to tell you about my hometown. This is a 
city that was the birthplace of General Motors in 1908. This is a city 
that actually helped build the labor movement.
  In 1936 and 1937, the workers in the factories occupied those 
factories until, on February 11, they got that first UAW contract that 
actually helped build the middle class.
  The reason I mention that is that it is a city that has great pride 
in the contribution that it has made over the decades to the incredible 
productive capacity of our society.
  With that pride as a backdrop, the last few decades have been really 
tough because we have seen the loss of manufacturing jobs. We have seen 
big changes in our economy. The community has become smaller. It has 
gone from 200,000 people to about 100,000 now.
  We have lost an enormous amount of the manufacturing base that we 
once had, and it was really the engine of our economy. Of course, the 
effect of all that is to challenge the community and its very 
existence.
  The city itself has struggled to keep its budgets balanced to provide 
essential services. Then a few years ago a decision was made at the 
State level to reduce and, in fact, eliminate State support for cities.
  That kind of support was necessary for the city to provide the 
essential role that it plays in a regional economy. As a result of that 
decision, the city was in significant financial stress, really on the 
verge of bankruptcy.
  The State of Michigan's solution, rather than provide support--
additional funding, economic development, workforce development, better 
schools--that is not the solution. Those are the things that would make 
a difference.
  Instead, the State of Michigan appoints an emergency manager that 
suspends the authority of the city council and the mayor, as if this 
city that is struggling as a result of disinvestment only needs new 
management.
  Worse yet, the charge to these emergency managers--and we have them 
in Michigan and lots of different communities and school districts--is 
to get in there and get the budget balanced. The tool they have is a 
budget scalpel. There are no additional resources, just a knife to cut 
the budget.
  In the case of Flint, one of the places they chose to cut was the 
essential service of drinking water, temporarily shifting, as a result 
of an emergency manager's decision, to the Flint River.
  Now, folks don't need to be mad at the river. It is just the river. 
Actually, it is quite beautiful now since it is no longer used as an 
open sewer. Some of it has been restored, but it is still river water. 
It is 19 times more corrosive than the Great Lakes water that we have 
drawn from decades as our water source.
  In a rush to save money, the decision was made to use this river. In 
an almost inexplicable decision to save a few hundred dollars--really, 
I think it is estimated at about $100 a day--they didn't treat the 
water with orthophosphate to control corrosion of the pipes.
  That is what led to the pipes leaching lead into the water system, 
into the households, into the bodies of human beings, and into 9,000 
children under the age of 6 who are the real victims of this.
  It is not good for adults. There is no acceptable level of lead in 
the human body. It is a neurotoxin. But for children it is especially 
dangerous because it affects brain development in a way that is 
permanent.
  So what we need now, since this was done to Flint by the failure of 
the emergency manager to think about something other than dollars and 
cents, and the failure of the State, despite repeated warnings, 
including warnings from the EPA, that they should be applying corrosion 
control and that this is going to have consequences, they treated it 
like it was a public relations problem for them, not a public health 
problem for 100,000 people. So the damage has been done.
  We have two questions to ask ourselves. One is: How do we make sure 
this never happens again? Getting rid of the emergency manager law 
would be a big step in the right direction, making sure that not only 
do we have adequate regulations regarding clean water, but the agencies 
charged with them have adequate authority and resources to enforce. 
That would go a long way to prevent this from happening again.
  Legislation that myself and my colleagues from Michigan are 
introducing would ensure that, when the EPA is aware of a problem like 
this, they would have to make it public. That would go a long way.
  The other question is: How do we make it right for the people in 
Flint, especially for the children? The State did this. It was their 
decision. Virtually everybody back home has no doubt about that 
question.
  There is an effort right now to try to obfuscate responsibility. That 
is really because, in my view--and this is only my opinion--by 
accepting responsibility for what happened means that there is the 
responsibility to make it right. I just fear that the State of Michigan 
is trying to avoid that kind of responsibility.
  To make it right, we need to spend some money on infrastructure, take 
up those lead service lines that have been so damaged by this corrosive 
water and replace them with something that will not deliver lead into 
the water system and to improve the infrastructure so that it is more 
sustainable.
  Most importantly and finally, to make it right in Flint, we have to 
make sure the kids, who are the real victims of this, are given every 
opportunity that we can give them to overcome something that their 
government did to them.
  That means giving them opportunities like every child having access 
to Early Head Start, every child being enrolled in Head Start, every 
child having enrichment opportunities, every child being given all the 
help they can, all the support they can, for proper nutrition, every 
child having a small class size so that teacher-student contact is real 
and not packed in a classroom of 35 or 40 kids, summer youth activity, 
summer employment.
  All of the things that we would do as parents for one of our own 
children struggling to overcome a developmental hurdle is what the 
State of Michigan owes to the 9,000 children of

[[Page H543]]

Flint under the age of 6 that have been subjected to high levels of 
lead. That is the moral obligation of the State of Michigan.
  I just hope--and I know my colleagues stand with me--that, if the 
State is unwilling to step up and do the right thing, we recognize that 
these children, these citizens, the people I represent, just like the 
people we all represent, are not just residents of a State, but they 
are citizens of the United States, just like when a storm hits, when we 
have a chance and the capacity to do something to ease that suffering, 
to provide opportunity to overcome a manmade disaster, that we are 
willing to stand up and do that.
  I can't tell you how much I thank my colleagues for taking some time 
this week--particularly my colleagues from Michigan, but the folks from 
all over the country, have been helpful. This is a real crisis, and it 
deserves a response equal to the gravity of the crisis.
  On behalf of the people I represent, thank you so much.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, we are particularly grateful for 
both Representative Kildee and Representative Lawrence for having 
elevated this discussion to the point that we are giving it serious 
consideration.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Lawrence), a cosponsor 
of this Special Order hour.
  Mrs. LAWRENCE. Madam Speaker, I stand before you today a true 
Michigan girl, born and raised in the city of Detroit, having traveled 
and been in public service for over 25 years in multiple capacities.
  Today I had the opportunity, after calling for a hearing to Chairman 
Chaffetz, to call a hearing about this Flint water situation.
  I want to tell you, being in Congress and knowing that there are two 
aisles, two philosophies, two groups--the Republicans and the 
Democrats--that I was so impressed that the chairman responded and 
granted my request for a hearing.
  He understood how important and how volatile the situation is. We 
struggled a little bit with who would be able to be witnesses, but we 
had the hearing.
  I wanted to tell you that this is something that is not a partisan 
issue. The message I want to get out today is that this issue where 
children and families are affected because of the lack of government 
doing their job is unacceptable. It is unacceptable in these United 
States of America.

                              {time}  1730

  I can tell you, Americans ask for three basic things whoever you are, 
wherever you live, and that is that we have safe food to consume, clean 
air to breathe, and clean water to drink because we need all those 
things to merely live.
  We trust our government to protect those things and to ensure that 
our consumption will not harm us. Clearly, we failed. We failed as a 
government. This isn't about wearing your R or D. This is about the 
government of these United States restoring the trust.
  I want you to imagine a mother holding her child and, doing what a 
mother does with an infant, is feeding that child. She may mix formula 
and use water to mix the formula. Then she gives the baby the bottle. 
She holds that baby, and that is just such a special bonding moment. Or 
she may breastfeed. When you are breastfeeding, they tell you to drink 
a lot of water.
  In each of those scenarios, she was poisoning her child, poisoning 
her child for over 7 months before someone stood up and said: Stop 
using the water. There are mothers all over this country who are 
holding their babies closer and praying, I hope this never happens to 
me.
  I feel it is the role of government, Democrats and Republicans, 
coming together to say never again in these United States of America. 
We need to find out why this happened, when it happened, and when you 
knew about it, what did you do about it at all levels of government--
Federal and State--and there is enough blame to go around.
  It doesn't do those families in Flint any good if we just point 
fingers. We have to find out and have a full investigation so that we 
can find out what we need to fix, so that we can stand before the 
citizens of this great country and say: As your government, we are 
starting to rebuild the trust, and we are going to fix this.
  I want to be on the record that I feel those who made the decisions, 
from the emergency manager and the Governor, and those who were in a 
position to make decisions should be providing statements and should be 
a witness to tell us what happened, why it happened, when did they 
know, what responsibility lies where.
  We have already identified so many areas that legislation will be 
coming forward. I hope they will be bipartisan. First of all, we need 
legislation to find out when we find lead in water on a State level, 
who has the primary role of protecting the water in that State? Where 
is the power of EPA? We must make it very clear, the notification of 
the public once lead is identified in water.
  We are hearing statements that are all over about why that didn't 
happen. What we need to do is legislate that so it doesn't happen 
again, make it very clear and enforce it. We need to increase the 
enforcement and testing of our water so that we will not have excuses 
in the future.
  The last thing I want to say is: This is an election year, and as 
those of us who serve in Congress go around and ask people to trust us, 
to give us their vote, we should also be able to say, in these United 
States of America we have a history where we didn't always get it right 
in America. In America our history will teach us, there are times where 
one side or the other didn't quite get it right, but our democracy and 
the voice of the people rose to a level that demanded action happen.
  Today, with this hearing and with us having this opportunity to put 
this on the record, we are demanding that action be taken, that our 
government stand up and do what it is supposed to do. We need to fund 
the correctional actions that we need to do for the children who have 
been affected. We need to ensure that we are going to fix the pipes, 
and this is a bigger discussion, and that is infrastructure.
  This Congress cannot continue to kick the can down the road when it 
comes to infrastructure. This issue is about, yes, we did not treat the 
water, but these lead pipes in older communities are an issue across 
this country. We are going to have to stand up as a government, address 
it, fund it, and get about the work of fixing our infrastructure.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. I would like to thank the Congresswoman. Another 
very strong and strident voice on behalf of all the citizens in the 
State of Michigan, and particularly with regard to the issue 
confronting our victims, the citizens as well as the city officials in 
Flint, Michigan, is our Congresswoman Dingell from Michigan.
  Mrs. DINGELL. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Watson 
Coleman for helping to organize this as well as the leadership of 
Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and Congressman Dan Kildee, who is 
fighting for the people of his district.
  Madam Speaker, the first responsibility of government is to keep the 
American people safe, and it is clear that the government at every 
level failed the people of Flint. Clean and safe drinking water is a 
basic human right. Now we need to focus on the people of Flint first, 
the men and women and children, and what is happening there.
  The most immediate need which we are still struggling with is what 
they need. People have been donating bottled water, but in Flint, 
mothers don't know what is safe and what is not safe because they are 
still getting conflicting information as to whether the water is safe 
to bathe in. They have rashes that no one can talk about. We have a 
Governor who says if he had grandchildren, it would be safe, and an 
attorney general who is saying if he had children in Flint, he wouldn't 
let them bathe. They don't even know what is safe.
  We need to make sure that we are taking care of people, that they 
have access and clean water. These families have no transportation. 
They have set up water sites at five firehouses, and yet we don't think 
about it because we are so lucky. These people don't have 
transportation. Many of them have no way to get there. They are allowed 
one case of water a day. Now, think about that. If you are trying to 
bathe your

[[Page H544]]

children and you don't know if tap water is safe or if the filter is 
there. Think about if you are cooking spaghetti, a very common meal, 
you need bottled water to just cook the spaghetti. So we really need to 
think about the people of Flint and what it means to their daily life.
  Secondly, we need to determine what it is they need long term, figure 
out the resources they need and all work together to get them. As my 
colleagues have so eloquently said--Mr. Kildee, Mrs. Lawrence--who is 
accountable? Hold people accountable and make sure this never happens 
again in America.
  But having said that, there are 153,000 water systems in this 
country. Very bad decisions were made that made a community totally 
toxic. As my colleague Mr. Kildee said, not only do we have to fix the 
infrastructure, but we have almost 10,000 children who are going to 
need Head Start, they are going to need access for resources for 
probably a lifetime, for decades for health care, et cetera. How are we 
going to ensure that they have it? But how are we going to make sure 
that we are addressing this problem across the country and making sure 
it never happens again? We need to make sure that our government at 
every level never fails another community again.
  The bringing of this tonight, the talking that all of us are doing, 
may we all work together to fix this manmade crisis and make sure we 
keep America safe for every other community.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Thank you very much, Congresswoman. I now yield 
to the distinguished lady from New York (Ms. Slaughter).
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Madam Speaker, as a citizen and representative of the 
State of New York, I want to express my concern to all my colleagues 
from Michigan that in New York we care very deeply about this issue.
  I want to thank certainly Congresswoman Watson Coleman for her 
leadership in allowing me to speak tonight. I rise today, Madam 
Speaker, as the only microbiologist in Congress to discuss the current 
health disaster in Flint. It is not only a public health disaster but 
is also a violation of our social contract.
  The magnitude of the public health crisis in Flint first became 
apparent nearly a year ago, when lead levels of 397 parts per billion 
were first detected in the city's drinking water, 26 times the limit 
that the EPA uses to trigger action. In fact, last summer, a group of 
researchers found lead levels high enough to meet the EPA's definition 
of toxic waste. No wonder that the filters that have been given to the 
people of Flint have been rendered useless.
  The truth is, the only safe level of lead in water is zero. Sadly, 
children are particularly susceptible to the damaging effects of lead 
poisoning. The proportion of infants and children with above-average 
levels of lead in their blood in Flint has nearly doubled since this 
crisis. This toxic metal robs their brains of gray matter in the 
regions that enable people to pay attention, to regulate emotions, and 
control impulses. For the rest of their lives, these children will 
likely suffer from neurodevelopmental damage, reduced intelligence, 
behavioral changes, anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, and other 
lifelong effects of lead poisoning, including a higher risk of 
incarceration.
  What is worse, these children have been poisoned as a result of 
deliberate decisions and systematic failures by the State of Michigan. 
Make no mistake about it, all of us who serve in this House and in 
yonder hall, as they serve in the Senate, have a responsibility for 
these children because our oath requires that we will protect everyone 
from enemies both foreign and domestic. We have no right, and I think 
it borders on criminal that we would allow this kind of thing to happen 
to children who are also in our care. The failures of the Michigan 
State government are inexcusable, and doing this to our smallest 
citizens is criminal.
  Need I remind us that the democratically elected city council was 
superseded by a State-appointed emergency manager--I don't know what 
the emergency was, but he certainly created one--who made these 
dreadful decisions that brought us to this process and to this 
democratic process that was undermined and the hundreds who live with 
the consequences of it.
  Those in Congress who have blocked investments in our Nation's 
infrastructure need to take another look at the consequences of their 
inactions. Instead of investing in roads, bridges, and pipes, we spent 
trillions of dollars on bombs, on decimating other countries, on war 
and wounding about 60,000 young Americans. While this failure impacts 
all Americans, it disproportionately harms the low-income areas, 
communities of color, doubling down on the already wide racial, health, 
and economic disparities across the country.
  Now, Flint is only the latest example of this disturbing reality. I 
fear that it is a bellwether for the rest of the Nation. Just under 
foot nationwide are century-old water pipes in almost every city, 
certainly in the New England States, that may be the very next to fail. 
We have got to take the steps to reverse the failed choices that 
brought Flint to the brink, but also to ensure that what happened in 
Flint does not happen in other communities across the country. Again, 
that is our responsibility.
  I thank Congresswoman Watson Coleman for her timely concern over the 
issue and for yielding to me.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. I thank the gentlewoman very much for not only 
her eloquent words but the fact that she can speak from her scientific 
background, being a microbiologist. Absolutely there is science in this 
issue.
  Now I yield to the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, the gentleman 
from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison).

                              {time}  1745

  Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, this is the Progressive Caucus Special 
Order hour. I am so honored that Bonnie Watson Coleman leads our Caucus 
in this regard. It couldn't be more important tonight than to have an 
excellent leader guiding us in this discussion because, in my opinion, 
the Flint water crisis is one of the most stunning failures of the 
philosophy that you ought to run a government entity like a business 
that I have ever seen.
  Tonight the Flint water crisis that is in front of us is not a 
tsunami, it is not a tornado, and it is not a flood. It is decisions by 
people who have inflicted massive harm and damage on children and the 
community at large.
  When we say children, the damage to the children is absolutely 
incontrovertible, but what about our seniors? What about our people in 
the prime of their lives who cannot use the water in the city that they 
expect to use it in?
  I submit to you that this problem is the responsibility of Governor 
Snyder, who believes in running government like a business. The former 
leader of Gateway Computers promised outcomes and deliverables during 
his campaign, but he wasn't selling computers. You are supposed to be 
giving public services to the people. It is very different. Apparently, 
the deliverables that he wanted to deliver, delivered awful, horrible 
outcomes for the people of Flint.
  Before the Flint crisis, Mr. Snyder spent $1.8 billion in tax cuts 
for corporations, leaving very little for small, struggling cities like 
Flint. Of course, it is all based on the philosophy that if you don't 
regulate rich people and big companies and you give them all the tax 
breaks they ever want, then they are going to invest it all in the 
plant and equipment and wages and make it better off. What a stunning 
failure. It is a lie, an untruth, and a demonstrably false claim.
  To save money, the Governor has been appointing political cronies as 
financial managers to mostly Black, mostly poor municipalities around 
the State. When I say that folks in Flint are mostly Black, I want to 
say this. They are not all Black. There is a shared harm on White 
communities and Latino communities as well. I don't want people across 
America to think: ``Well, I am not Black, so it is not really my 
problem.'' No, it is your problem, if you are living in Flint and 
drinking water, no matter what your skin color or ethnic background is.
  In Flint, the emergency manager suggested switching the city's 
drinking water supply to the Flint River to save the city about $5 
million. Thank you. It will cost billions to correct the damage that 
this perverted philosophy of money before people has resulted in. The 
conservative mantra says that cutting spending and shrinking government 
is the way to go. Well, he sure did

[[Page H545]]

that, and now we have this crisis on our doorstep.
  The government and businesses do not have the same bottom line, they 
should not have the same bottom line, and we should treat businesses 
like businesses and public services and government like that. They 
should not confuse one for the other.
  We have a crisis of democracy in Flint. Under the guise of fiscal 
responsibility--which we all know only applies to low-income people and 
never the well-to-do and the well-heeled--they are never asked to be 
fiscally responsible. For example, in Florida, the poor have to be 
fiscally responsible. They even have to be drug tested to get welfare. 
We give farm subsidies away--that is welfare, too--and nobody is asked 
to do anything. It is ridiculous. It is a double standard.
  Under the guise of fiscal responsibility, Governor Snyder used the 
State's emergency manager law to remove local power and appoint his own 
personal emergency managers to run the city of Flint and numerous other 
committees in Michigan, including my own hometown where I was born and 
raised in Detroit, Michigan.
  I am a proud Representative of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its 
suburbs today, but I was born in Detroit. I can never--nor would I want 
to--disconnect my connection to this crisis. This is my crisis. This is 
the State where I was born and where my two older brothers and my 
parents and nieces and nephews live right now. My brother, Reverend 
Brian Ellison of Church of the New Covenant Baptist, was born in Flint.
  Of the 25 times that emergency financial managers have been appointed 
in Michigan since 1990, Rick Snyder has appointed 15 of them. In doing 
so, he has denied these communities their right to representative 
democracy. This kind of idea that when your town is in trouble, 
democracy and the voice of the people cannot be part of the solution, 
is offensive to anybody who cares about democracy. Instead, it turns 
over control to an outside dictator who reports only to the Governor, 
not anyone in the community.
  I want to talk about Flint by the numbers just for a moment:
  8,657 is the number of children under the age of 16 exposed to lead 
poisoning--it may be more now;
  $5 million is the amount of money that Flint's emergency manager was 
trying to save by switching the water supply to the Flint River;
  $1.5 billion is estimated as what it would cost to now replace 
Flint's corroded water pipes;
  $100 is the amount of money per day it would have cost to treat 
Flint's water with an anticorrosive agent;
  10 is the number of Flint residents who have died from a 
Legionnaires' outbreak in Flint that experts suspect could be linked to 
waterborne illnesses;
  Zero is the number of corroded pipes removed from Flint since the 
Governor decided to appoint this emergency manager.
  Now, as I close, I just want to say that there is another group of 
people who I just want to bring to light today, and that is a group of 
people in our society who live among us who clean hotel rooms, work on 
farms, and who really work superhard. These are people who may not have 
documentation to live in the United States.
  One of the stories that we have yet to really put a lot of light on 
is the fact that undocumented people are being, according to reports, 
turned away from services. You need an ID to get the water. There are 
cases where undocumented people have not been able to get the services 
that they need.
  I just want to say that Flint's undocumented migrants hesitated to 
request help during the water crisis. On this floor and in other 
legislatures around this country, conservative legislators are talking 
about the aliens and all this kind of stuff as if these people are from 
another planet, but my God, you deny them water? Come on. The fact of 
the matter is that this is a humanitarian crisis. It deserves the full 
attention of our government.
  The Progressive Caucus will offer an entry in our budget addressing 
this crisis and coming at it with the money. Yes, we think the health 
and safety of the children and the people of Flint are more important 
than somebody's tax cut. We do believe that to be true, and we are 
going to be standing firm for that.
  We also urge all of our Members in this body to say wait a minute. 
Anytime public policy says the only thing that matters is cutting taxes 
and we don't really care about public services, you are going to get a 
crisis like this.
  Now that we have seen what this abhorrent philosophy will bring, I 
think we can all say we need to slow down and ask ourselves the 
question: Isn't it worth a moment to spend time to deliver quality 
public services to all of the people of this country? Isn't it time to 
let government do what it is supposed to do, to protect the people?
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. I thank Mr. Ellison, and I appreciate him taking 
the time to be here.
  I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank Congresswoman Watson Coleman for her 
leadership in coordinating this Special Order, and thank you to the 
Michigan Representatives who have been working so hard to try to 
respond to this tragedy.
  Madam Speaker, there will be a lot of investigations designed to find 
out what happened, whose fault it was, whether or not any crimes were 
committed, and how to prevent this from happening in the future, but 
there is one thing we know, and that is that children have been 
poisoned by lead exposure.
  As the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce, we have begun the process to determine how to appropriately 
respond, because we know that lead poisoning creates severe challenges 
to the public school system.
  Children are entitled to an equal educational opportunity. That goes 
back to the Brown v. Board of Education case where the Court found that 
it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in 
life if denied the opportunity of an education. That opportunity is a 
right which must be made available to all on equal terms.
  The local, State, and Federal governments have all failed our 
children, allowing them to be poisoned by lead exposure. We owe it to 
our children to mitigate, to the extent possible, the adverse effects 
of lead poisoning so they can achieve an equal educational opportunity.
  Research already shows that the adverse effects of lead exposure are 
great due to decreased academic attainment, increased need for special 
education, higher likelihood of behavioral challenges, and it can 
result in a significant loss in earnings and tax revenues, additional 
burdens to the criminal justice system, and great stress on our 
hospital systems.
  The opportunity for a strong start to a successful life will be 
stunted for Flint's children if they are not given the necessary 
resources including early interventions and access to high-quality 
early learning programs such as Head Start to help them overcome the 
lifelong effects of exposure to lead.
  We have an obligation to provide these resources--and provide them as 
soon as possible--while they can be most effective. Current funding, 
however, only allows 20 percent of Flint children who are eligible for 
Head Start to actually attend.
  The children who are able to participate in Head Start can receive 
early screening services for developmental disabilities. Families can 
receive counseling and assistance in accessing services. Head Start can 
provide the Flint families affected by the disaster with early 
intervention services that they desperately need. But in order to do 
so, all families eligible for Head Start--not just the 20 percent 
presently participating--need to be able to access Head Start. We need 
to come up with the money to make that possible.
  But make no mistake; we should not expect the fix to this crisis to 
be easy or cheap. The impact of lead exposure on young children is 
long-lasting, and our response must have a long-term approach. We must 
use all of the tools available to us, starting with prenatal care and 
screenings for pregnant moms, early intervention to identify special 
education needs, title I funding from ESEA, after-school programs, and 
even investments in college access efforts.
  Our children's futures have been compromised by bad government 
decisions, but we know how to mitigate that damage. The response has to 
be

[[Page H546]]

more than just the infrastructure improvements and repairs to finally 
provide clean water. We need a comprehensive response. Members of the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce will be working to formulate 
the appropriate response to the educational challenges. Other 
committees will work to the responses within their jurisdictions. But 
one thing is certain: it is imperative that these resources be provided 
now, without delay.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. 
Clarke).
  Ms. CLARKE of New York. Madam Speaker, as a member of the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus, I thank Mrs. Watson Coleman for her 
leadership, and I stand with my colleagues from the Michigan delegation 
and our colleagues throughout this House in our outrage over what has 
occurred and the pursuit of justice for the people of Flint.
  As a New Yorker, I say to myself: There, but for the grace of God, go 
I. We, too, in New York City faced a lead crisis when callous landlords 
did nothing to abate lead paint in their older housing stock. A crisis 
that impacted untold numbers of young New Yorkers remains with us to 
this very day. But then, that was the private sector. Who will speak 
for the marginalized and disenfranchised that depended on the State 
leadership of the Governor, Mr. Snyder, and his team to keep them safe 
from harm?
  The decision of the State of Michigan to change the source of water 
for the sake of saving money showed an utter disregard for the well-
being of the people of Flint. It is a national disgrace. It is a 
national tragedy. This callous disregard for the poor and the 
vulnerable leaves us all culpable for what has happened in our Nation.

                              {time}  1800

  The timeline of events is especially unnerving. The source of Flint's 
water was changed in April of 2014. For nearly 1 year, complaints about 
the water quality were ignored by the Michigan Department of 
Environmental Quality.
  It took the EPA one series of tests to determine that the water was 
unusable, just one series of tests. And we know, as a result of that, 
that this water was definitely unsafe for human consumption.
  The result is babies, children, nursing mothers, the elderly, some 
with compromised immune systems and health, were poisoned by their own 
government.
  Access to clean water and clean air are fundamental human rights. The 
State of Michigan has failed the people of Flint. Its State leadership 
has demonstrated a contempt and marginalization of the humanity of her 
people.
  Who will speak for the marginalized and disenfranchised of the 
callous disregard for the poor and the most vulnerable?
  Well, tonight and every night across this Nation Americans are 
standing up to say that this cannot be tolerated, that justice is due, 
that we have to speak out for the vulnerable communities, often 
minority and impoverished, that are victims of environmental injustice.
  We must stand firm in our resolve to see that the people of Flint are 
dealt with in a humane manner, that their lives are enhanced by a quick 
remedy to what they are currently experiencing.
  The malaise, the laid-back way in which people--in particular, the 
Governor and his administration--are dealing with this crisis leaves 
all of us uneasy.
  You have heard from my colleagues this evening about the impact of 
lead on the brains of developing children. You have heard about how 
lead impacts the health of those with compromised immune systems.
  We are also hearing about other contagions within the waters of the 
Flint River maybe even being tied to Legionnaires' disease. We will 
continue to see health crises emerge as more and more is discovered 
about actually what is in the Flint River.
  We have also been told that the level of lead within this water is so 
over the top that the filtration systems that have been given to the 
people are no longer capable of providing them with a safe source of 
water.
  So it is now up to Governor Snyder to do right by his own people, to 
stand up and to do what is right by the people of Flint, Michigan. The 
effects of what has taken place in Flint will be effects that will be 
felt and experienced by the people of Flint, Michigan, now and into the 
years to come.
  It is our sincere hope that the Governor and his team will do right 
by the people of Flint, Michigan, and, by extension, the people of the 
United States by moving swiftly to apply the resources of Michigan to 
the mitigation of this problem as well as to make sure that every life, 
every soul, that has been impacted by the poisonous water that they 
have consumed will be taken care of today and for the rest of their 
lives.
  So I thank Bonnie Watson Coleman for her leadership this evening. I 
thank all of my colleagues for standing up, for speaking out, for being 
consistent, in demanding that this Governor do right by his people, 
that he come out with a plan immediately to direct the resources needed 
to fix this problem, and to address the illness that is ultimately 
going to be a part of the lives of a significant portion of this 
population for the rest of their lives. It is the right thing to do.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Thank you very much to the Congresswoman.
  Madam Speaker, could you tell me how much time I have left.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman has 7 minutes remaining.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Very quickly, I would like to acknowledge the 
fact that Congressman John Conyers of the 13th District of Michigan was 
here and has left a statement, which I will submit, with regard to this 
issue and the fact that he visited Flint, Michigan, just the other day.
  I also want to just state two things very briefly, number one, 
something that Congresswoman Clarke spoke to, which is that these are 
permanent concerns that we have. This impairment that has taken place 
as a result of exposure to lead is something that these young people 
will carry the rest of their lives.
  It is not just what we are going to do about trying to educate them 
now. It is how we are going to address this as they move through 
adulthood and how that impacts their ability to take care of their 
lives and to have careers, to be responsible.
  So I do hope that the Governor does, indeed, do the investigations 
and the work that he needs to do in order to address these issues 
immediately. I hope the Federal Government does the kind of 
investigation of everybody included in this situation, including the 
Governor, to see just why this had to happen in the first place.
  Finally, I yield to the eloquent and vivacious and ever-ready 
Congresswoman from the great State of Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, may I have the time remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman has 5 minutes remaining.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman for her 
generosity, and let me, first of all, thank her for leading the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus.
  I understand she is due a recognition, of which I celebrate, that she 
will have shortly. But let me thank her for her astuteness about state 
government.
  You come from state government. You understand oversight. You 
understand the responsibilities. You are the right person to lead this 
particular Special Order.
  Madam Speaker, it is important today to say that I fully support the 
proposed supportive services that have been accounted or recounted by 
Congressman Kildee, Congresswoman Lawrence, and Congressman Scott, who 
is the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. 
We must embrace and surround those children.

  I must say it again. I said it earlier. For those of us who remember 
Jim Jones, who left California and gave a poisonous concoction to 
children in a foreign country, we have a Jim Jones in Michigan giving a 
poisonous concoction to the children of Flint, Michigan.
  So we are obviously upset about this, and we want the services to be 
provided for children, who are innocent.
  But, at the same time, wearing a hat that deals with the law and law 
and order, I must make the argument that there has to be a criminal 
investigation.

[[Page H547]]

  Let me applaud the Department of Justice because I sent a letter 
January 14, 2016, to ask the Department of Justice to immediately 
investigate the actions of State officials in Michigan. They are 
actively engaged. The FBI is actively engaged, and their work is not 
for naught.
  Let me give you an example, Madam Speaker, very quickly. The Governor 
was asked to release his e-mails. Part of what he released was this 
black, redacted pages of information.
  He released some other materials that I think are telling. Here we 
are: ``We need Treasury to work with Dan in Flint on a clear side by 
side comparison of the health benefits and costs of GLWA [Great Lakes 
Water Authority] vs. a more optimized Flint system.''
  But here's the real key: ``Also, we need to look at what financing 
mechanisms are available to Flint to pay for any higher cost actions.''
  Madam Speaker, the Governor of the State of Michigan is sitting on $1 
billion. Yet, he is asking a city that is near bankruptcy, controlled 
by an emergency manager under a State law that was rejected by the 
people of Michigan, to find out how they can pay for better water. They 
have no money to pay for better water.
  But let me tell you what they did. Instead of helping Flint pay for 
better water, helping them have a plan for anticorrosion, they paid an 
emergency manager under a law that was rejected by the voters of 
Michigan.
  This individual led the Detroit's Public Schools as an emergency 
manager. I am told that that was literally brought to collapse. He was 
paid $180,000. Well, he didn't do that well enough that they wanted to 
give him $221,000.
  Let me say this. The emergency manager payment for the city of 
Flint--let me correct that--was $180,000. When he did it for Detroit's 
Public Schools, that came to near collapse. It was $221,000.
  From my perspective, there is much here that warrants a criminal 
investigation.
  Let me add to the point. On April 25, 2014, the city switches its 
water supply. Let me be very clear. The city leaders--I served on city 
council--had no authority because the emergency manager was in place.
  Did the emergency manager have an anticorrosion plan? No.
  Did they test the water when they opted to go cheap and save $5 
million and go into the Flint River? No.
  The city switches its water supply, because of money, from a Detroit 
system that works. The switch was made as a cost-saving measure for the 
struggling majority-Black city of Flint.
  Soon after, residents began to complain about the water's color, 
taste, odor, and to report rashes and concerns about bacteria.
  In August and September 2014, city officials suggested that they boil 
the water, the complete wrong thing to do.
  They did not have a plan for anticorrosion. They did not follow the 
Federal law that indicated that you had to put phosphate, an 
anticorrosive element, into the water. So it continued to deteriorate 
and deteriorate.
  Guess what, Madam Speaker, and my colleagues. The emergency manager 
was never a scientist. It was not someone who said: Let me test the 
water before I order citizens to drink the water.
  That sounds to me like there is culpability and criminal culpability 
because lives have been endangered. And so I am looking forward to the 
attorney general of Michigan coming in, just as the Governor should, 
and looking forward to a thorough investigation, Madam Speaker, that 
will find some relief.
  My final point, Madam Speaker, is to say that the Governor is 
culpable. The Governor right now needs to go into his rainy day fund 
and provide the full funding requested by Mr. Kildee and all others to 
fix the Flint water system.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my neighbors 
in Flint, Michigan, who are facing one of the greatest disasters in 
American history. We cannot erase their pain. But I know that I stand 
with my colleagues in saying we will do everything in our power to help 
them recover and help make sure it never happens again.
  The sort of regulatory neglect that has brought Flint to its knees 
has a well-known disparate impact on urban, low-income, and minority 
communities. Residents who cannot afford to move to suburbs and 
wealthier neighborhoods, or who do not want to leave their longtime 
communities, are treated as second-class citizens. Here in Michigan, 
the twofold combination of negligent environmental protection and 
underinvestment in infrastructure is forcing those in underserved 
communities to pay with their health and lives.
  We see this in places like Detroit, where 8% of children have 
elevated blood levels--16 times the national average according to the 
Centers for Disease Control. We see it in places like Flint, where an 
unelected emergency manager switched the city's water to an unsafe, 
untreated source, which has exposed tens of thousands of residents to 
toxic lead levels.
  Exposure to lead--a potent neurotoxin--carries lifelong consequences. 
Flint parents must now raise children who face lifelong developmental 
and behavioral challenges, cover economic costs their city cannot 
afford, and confront mounting medical bills that cannot undo the harm 
they have suffered. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. But they 
need more than that--they need action.
  It has become an all too common tale that whenever an urban or low-
income community's water or air quality is in question, risks to the 
health and safety of its residents are ignored. This must stop. 
Underserved communities generally face so-called ``acceptable'' risks 
that no other community or suburb would ever accept--or be asked to 
accept. This must stop. In Flint, the decision was made by someone they 
never voted for and approved by someone who did not care that it might 
lead to toxic exposure for city's residents. This must stop.
  The time when apologies and resignations would suffice has passed. 
The disregard for the health and safety of our neighbors in Flint will 
mean massive, heartbreaking consequences for those affected and their 
city. Anything less than a transformative, lasting shift in the 
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan's other 
regulatory bodies--from panderers to guardians--simply adds insult to 
injury. We are not dealing with isolated events of negligence. There is 
a pattern and practice of disregard for the quality of our air and 
water that has become intolerable, and we will not settle for mere 
assurances to do better.
  Unfortunately, it appears those responsible for Flint are more 
focused on surviving the scandal than fixing the problem. Governor 
Snyder has said he is sorry but he's only offering half measures: free 
water that they cannot drink anyway, a fraction of what is needed to 
fix Flint's plumbing, and resources that cannot possibly overcome the 
health impacts of lead exposure. It appears the only time he thinks 
Michigan, the City of Flint, and the federal government should work 
together is when it is time to apportion blame, or when it is time to 
do everything he says on his terms.
  But we know how that story ends. It is time for those of us in 
Congress who care about a safe environment more than the business 
environment to act. That means directing federal resources to help 
Flint recover and rebuild, figuring out exactly what went wrong, and 
ensuring that this never happens again.
  Fixing this problem starts with providing government services that 
will actually help these people heal. Especially the children so they 
can succeed in life--which means a proper education, comprehensive 
healthcare, and access to everything a child in a wealthy community 
would have if they were similarly exposed. It means repairing the 
infrastructure, so that they can have clean water again.
  Preventing this from happening in the future starts with 
strengthening--not cutting--our enforcement capacity. It means 
eliminating emergency management programs that cut government 
regardless of the cost and strip citizens of their democratic rights. 
It means stopping with the idea that a small government is a good 
government, and it means stopping efforts to undermine our government 
by cutting its budgets to the bone.

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