Congress to call Snyder to testify on Flint water crisis
Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press 2:55 p.m. EST January 21, 2016
U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence says House Oversight Committee will hold hearing on Flint lead-in-water crisis on Feb. 3
WASHINGTON — A U.S. House committee is expected to hold a hearing Wednesday, Feb. 3, on the Flint water crisis and the government’s response to high lead levels in drinking water there, U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence’s office said Thursday.
And Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who has apologized for the state’s handling of reports of high lead levels in Flint’s drinking water after it switched to the Flint River as its water source, is expected to be among those invited to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
A spokeswoman for the committee did not immediately return a request for comment on the hearing, which would be the first congressional inquiry into the crisis. President Barack Obama signed an emergency designation for Genesee County and Flint last Saturday and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is supplying water and water filters to residents.
Lawrence, D-Southfield, a week ago sent a letter to leaders of the committee, of which she is a member, asking for the hearing, saying it's Congress' responsibility to address "a man-made disaster created by the poor policy decisions of elected and career government officials."
So far, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has taken the brunt of the blame for not requiring corrosion control treatments at the Flint water plant once it switched from Detroit-supplied water to more corrosive water from the Flint River as a temporary cost-savings move.
It wasn’t immediately apparent whether the hearing would be a full committee or subcommittee hearing. Lawrence’s office, however, said that besides Snyder, Chairman Jason Cheffetz, R-Utah, has accepted her suggestions for other invitees as well, including Dan Wyant, who resigned as MDEQ’s director in the wake of the crisis; EPA Region 5 Director Susan Hedman, and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver.
Also to be invited were Dr. Mona Hanna-Atissha, a pediatric doctor at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, whose findings of elevated lead levels in children’s blood spurred outside investigations into the crisis, and Virginia Tech Professor Mark Edwards, a specialist who brought a team to Flint to study the level of lead in the city’s drinking water.
It wasn’t immediately known if the invitees would accept, decline or ask to send someone in their place.
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