MI governor offers Flint aid instead of Congress testimony

Although he said he’s “taking responsibility” for the incident, Snyder, who announced a $195 million budget to revitalize Flint’s infrastructure, encouraged politicians to come together to find solutions rather than assign blame.

More hard than proving gross negligence, he said, would be establishing a link between the contaminated water and a specific death.

A Michigan Democrat, U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, is sponsoring an emergency bill that would spend $765 million to help Flint fix and replace lead-contaminated pipes and provide a health and educational support for children poisoned by lead-contaminated water.

She joins Rosie O’Donnell, Seth Meyers, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Fallon, Madonna, Mark Wahlberg, Eminem, and more in their efforts to provide either money or bottled water to the community of Genesee County.

Flood’s statement comes after a number of recent revelations about just how much Flint city employees knew about the health risks associated with the local drinking water before the public was advised to take precautions.

“But people have to be alert”, he added, apparently suggesting that the residents of Flint were not.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver was also there to speak on behalf of the people. Nine full-time investigators were handpicked by the group to examine what happened in Flint, which has rankled residents for almost two years and has become an issue on the presidential campaign trail. Schuette, whose office is both investigating the crisis and representing Snyder in the civil cases, refused on Tuesday to discuss the subpoena and its potential impact to the state’s investigation, citing an “ironclad” wall between the investigation and civil lawsuits he says his office has established.

“I wish this bill weren’t necessary”, Upton said on the House floor Wednesday.

Liane Shekter-Smith, the head of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance for the MDEQ, was sacked on February 5 of this year. With a 40 percent poverty rate in Flint, no public transportation and no full-service grocery stores, Hanna-Attisha said the need for support services is dire.

Get One, Give One Campaign for every water filter purchased, one will be donated to Flint, Michigan.

“We lack federal regulations that require testing or remediation of lead in drinking water in schools or even notification that there is a problem”, she said.

Officials have acknowledged the failure to control corrosion after Flint switched sources and began drawing water from the river in 2014 was a mistake that let lead leach from pipes into water that reached some homes. Snyder also plans to call for $165 million in funding for infrastructure needs across MI in the 2016-17 budget. “We deserve equal protection under the law”, she said, adding that access to safe water should be a basic right.

“It’s one of the ways we could have prevented this, had there not been confusion about the clear authority of the federal agency when a state has primacy of enforcement – to essentially blow the whistle on state failure”, he said.

Gov. Rick Snyder had sought increased nutrition funding for older low-income Flint children who may be affected by lead-tainted water, but it was denied last month.

Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.