[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 3, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S535-S536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FLINT, MICHIGAN, WATER CRISIS

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an urgent 
and truly tragic situation in Flint, MI, and ask my colleagues in the 
Senate to look very hard at what has happened here and to help us 
address this issue.
  This is a public health emergency on a massive scale. It is 
unprecedented. I don't know of any other American city where families 
in the entire city--in the entire city--can't drink their water, can't 
cook with their water, can't bathe their children with the water.
  We need to be very clear. This morning, as every other morning now 
going on 2 years, people in Flint took showers by pouring bottled water 
over their

[[Page S536]]

heads. They didn't have the dignity of clean water coming out of their 
taps. They had to use bottled water to drink, to make breakfast for 
their children, to make a pot of coffee--the things we all use water 
for and the things that all of us take for granted every single day. 
They will not have clean water until the pipes get replaced.
  Up until now, we have had what we thought was a good series of 
negotiations. We thought we had an agreement. I have been very hopeful 
about the bipartisan discussions to help these families, and we have 
been incredibly flexible, Senator Peters and I. We just want to get 
this done. We are not interested in the politics or making this 
partisan. We want to get something done for the people of Flint.
  We understand that money doesn't grow on trees. Senator Peters and I 
are willing in fact to support a proposal that was less than half of 
what we originally requested in order to be able to immediately get 
some help to the families of Flint. Now, we can't even get agreement on 
that because we are hearing procedural excuses--procedural excuses that 
are overcome every single day on this Senate floor when we want to. 
Lord knows, there were a whole bunch on the Transportation bill, all of 
which were waived because people wanted to fix the roads. I am left 
wondering what is going on. What is really going on here?
  I am asking that we come together and understand that this is a 
serious, urgent issue and that we not accept procedural excuses. It is 
an urgent, severe, outrageous crisis, and we need to act now.
  When we look at what has been said on the Senate floor, it is very 
concerning to me. One Senator yesterday said we are putting the cart 
before the horse by asking for money even before the government knew 
what this was going to cost. But, in fact, the Governor in writing 
requested from the President $766 million to replace the pipes in Flint 
and another $41 million in protective measures. So we are working 
within the numbers that the Governor of Michigan has identified and 
requested. While we truly don't know the full cost until work begins, 
as with any project, we need to begin to get this done immediately.
  I think what is most important is for us to focus on what is 
happening to the children and families. No lead level is safe, and I 
have to say I know a lot more about lead than I have ever known before. 
Frankly, hearing about the damage done to children and what can happen 
to individuals is really frightening. We should all be doing everything 
we can to make sure we address this lead issue across the board.
  The threshold set by the EPA and the Center for Disease Control is 15 
parts per billion of exposure. The water filters that FEMA has provided 
to families in Flint are certified to protect lead up to 150 parts per 
billion. In many places, when they are provided and used correctly, 
that is making a real difference. But, unfortunately, we look at the 
severity of this. Last week, a new round of tests showed that lead in 
some homes in Flint range from 153 parts up to 4,000 parts per billion. 
If they are saying 15 parts per billion is when we need to be worried, 
I can't even fathom 4,000 parts.
  We are all looking at all the different numbers, but I heard one 
commentator in the news say that the exposure to children and families 
in those particular homes is actually higher than a toxic waste dump. 
And this is after the city switched back to the Detroit water system 
because of the damage that was done to the pipes. So this is severe and 
urgent. We have to act now.
  Unfortunately, the same Senator also suggested we are putting the 
cart before the horse because this was a local issue. Come on. I am 
really glad that the people of the great State of Michigan didn't have 
that attitude when a fertilizer plant in West Texas exploded and we 
spent millions of dollars in Federal funding on that town. That was 
also a manmade disaster where safety procedures were lax. We all saw 
the horror of that situation, and we stepped in as Americans to support 
that community and those families. That is all we are asking. When 
floods hit South Carolina and Texas last year, we came together with 
$300 million put in an omnibus for South Carolina and Texas for floods. 
And just last week, the same Member of the Republican leadership asked 
President Obama to grant a disaster declaration and funneled millions 
of dollars to his State.
  We all know we have challenges in our States, and we need to be 
thoughtful. But we need to be supporting Americans around the country. 
This is a disaster. This is a situation where we need to show that we 
care about a group of people who did nothing. They did nothing, and 
they are in a situation where their entire water system is unusable. We 
should be lending a hand.
  Right now, we have up to 9,000 children under the age of 6 in Flint--
9,000 children--who are exposed to lead.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Ms. STABENOW. I appreciate that I am running out of time. I will 
close. I will be back a lot today. I would just indicate to the 
President and to others that we want this fixed. We have been working 
in good faith. We thought we had an agreement working within the 
framework given to us by the Republicans working on this issue. We are 
not going to let procedural issues that are fixed every single day in 
the Senate get in the way of what is happening. I am not going to tell 
families, I am not going to tell children, I am not going to tell moms 
in Flint ``Sorry, we can't help you'' because of some bureaucratic 
procedural issue that folks don't want to fix when they fix them every 
single day.
  I yield the floor, and I will be back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

                          ____________________