[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3590]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CRISIS IN FLINT, MICHIGAN

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, the ongoing crisis in my hometown of Flint, 
Michigan, is a real tragedy. This failure of government has affected 
100,000 people--adults and children--who, after months and months, 
still do not have clean drinking water.
  It is my view that the State of Michigan bears the principal 
responsibility for this crisis and should step up and do more. It was 
the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality that failed to a great 
extent.
  I know there are Members who share my view that there is 
responsibility at every level of government. We could argue about how 
we apportion that responsibility, but in the meantime, people in Flint 
still can't drink the water, and they need help. They deserve help from 
the State and from the Federal Government. They are citizens of 
Michigan, but also citizens of the United States, who are facing a 
disaster, a crisis, and have every right to expect that their 
government will step in to help them, especially when it is clear that 
it was the government that made the decisions that led to this crisis.
  So I ask that we not recess until we take up legislation to provide 
direct help to the city of Flint. It is something that I think is our 
moral responsibility. It is unconscionable that we would leave this 
body without acting.

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