The governor, who initially declined to testify, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee the Flint water scandal is “a failure of government at all levels”.
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The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality repeatedly assured him and other officials that water from the Flint River was safe, when in reality it had unsafe levels of lead, the governor says. “Not a day goes by that this tragedy doesn’t weigh on my mind”, he said.
“I have a really simple question, why didn’t Administrator McCarthy just get on the phone and call me?”
Governor Rick Snyder took full responsibility for his administration, and the mistakes made when choosing to switch the source of Flint’s water system without enough research or protection in place.
Republican lawmakers also ramped up the pressure on McCarthy throughout the long-anticipated, frequently terse House Committee on Oversight and Government Regulation hearing on the Flint water crisis.
But the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said that’s not the biggest concern.
Complete coverage of the Flint water crisis in our special section.
That warning came a year before Snyder said he became aware of the contamination on October 1, 2015, at which time he ordered the city of Flint be reconnected to Detroit’s water supply. The governor knowingly allowed a city in his state to be poisoned.
“Michigan now has the wherewithal to support projected additional costs and maintain the current rating, but if costs related to the Flint water crisis or distressed local credits escalate, there could be credit pressure”, Spain said. That money would be in addition to the $67 million in emergency state funds that MI approved in January, with a request for an $165 million more pending.
McCarthy held that she was bound by legalities on when the EPA could intercede and the level of engagement allowable under the law.
Governor Snyder talked about what the state is doing now to help those affected, from infrastructure to health care.
Daniel Howes tells us more about today’s committee hearing and what it could mean for the Snyder administration in our conversation above.
Snyder admitted he was at fault, but not entirely.
“If you want to do the courageous thing like you said that Susan Hedman did, then you, too, should resign”, he told the EPA chief.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the oversight panel, said officials “need to understand how the system failed the residents of Flint so badly”.
Democrats said Governor Snyder should resign.
Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., scoffed at the outrage from Chaffetz and other Republicans, noting that the EPA under President Barack Obama is a favorite target of GOP politicians who routinely accuse the agency of overreach.
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McCarthy, who in her testimony to the House panel did not take as much responsibility as Snyder did, got a bipartisan grilling from committee members. She said she regrets that the agency wasn’t “aggressive” enough in its pursuit of the poisoning but said the EPA was stymied by “intransigence” from the MDEQ. We were strong armed, we were misled, we were kept at arm’s length.
