[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13084]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           MICHIGAN IS DISENFRANCHISING THE CITIZENS OF FLINT

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, it was reported that, instead of 
doing what is necessary to fix the Flint water crisis, State of 
Michigan officials are, instead, focusing on disenfranchising further 
the people of my hometown.
  Through sleight of hand and bureaucratic maneuvers, they are 
effectively preventing the people of Flint from suing the State 
government for the harm that has been caused by the State government in 
my hometown.
  Just as when the State installed emergency managers to take over the 
city of Flint, they are now using obscure legal wrangling to silence 
the voices of the people in my community and the people that they 
elected from representing them in a court of law, from going to court 
to seek justice, to seek solutions.
  So, instead of fixing the problem, not only have they denied the 
people in Flint the resources necessary to solve the problem that they 
created but they are denying those very same people access to the 
judicial process to seek redress. This is outrageous; it is wrong; and 
it has to stop.

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