page_title: Flint water crisis
section_title: Federal government
hierarchical_section_title: Flint water crisis / Political responses / Federal government
caption_attribution_description: English: President Barack Obama sips filtered water from Flint following a roundtable on the Flint water crisis at Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich., May 4, 2016.in Flint, Mich., May 4, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
context_page_description: The Flint water crisis is a public health crisis that started in 2014, after the drinking water source for the city of Flint, Michigan was changed. In April 2014, Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water to the Flint River. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water. As a result, lead from aging pipes leached into the water supply, leading to extremely elevated levels of the heavy metal neurotoxin and exposing over 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. A pair of scientific studies proved that lead contamination was present in the water supply. The city switched back to the Detroit water system on October 16, 2015. It later signed a 30-year contract with the new Great Lakes Water Authority on November 22, 2017.
  On January 5, 2016, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in Genesee County, of which Flint is the major population center. Shortly thereafter, President Barack Obama declared a federal state of emergency, authorizing additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
context_section_description: Dan Kildee, the Democratic party congressman in the House of Representatives representing the Michigan 5th district which includes Flint, along with Republican Michigan Representative Fred Upton, sponsored H.R. 4470, the Safe Drinking Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness Act, which would ensure that the public promptly learns of excessive lead levels in their drinking water by setting forth how and when states, EPA, and public utilities communicate their findings. It has passed the House, but has yet to be passed by the Senate.
  Among the Michigan congressional delegation, only Representative Justin Amash, Republican of Cascade Township, opposed federal aid for Flint. Amash opined that "the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to intervene in an intrastate matter like this one."
  In December 2016, President Barack Obama signed Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 (co-sponsored by Debbie Stabenow in the Senate) which earmarked $170 million to address the Flint water crisis. The first $100 million was released in March 2017, by the US Environmental Protection Agency after President Trump had taken office.
  President Donald Trump's plan to fix the crisis in Michigan has been folded into his federal infrastructure plan. Trump's infrastructure plan proposes $1 trillion in spending on new infrastructure by offering corporations who invest in infrastructure projects tax credits, with the corporations investing approximately $167 billion. This plan would require a return of 9–10% to investors to remain feasible. This plan has no direct reference to or specific proposal for the crisis in Flint and as of his election he has not proposed a direct federal intervention.
  Dan Kildee, the Democratic party congressman in the House of Representatives representing the Michigan 5th district which includes Flint, re-introduced on July 10, 2019 a bill in the House, originally introduced in 2017, as HR 3677, the National Opportunity for Lead Exposure Accountability and Deterrence Act (NO LEAD) of 2017. Tammy Duckworth, Democratic Senator for Illinois, announced on the same day, July 10, 2019, the introduction of a bill in the Senate as S. 2086, the National Opportunity for Lead Exposure Accountability and Deterrence (NO LEAD) of 2019. The nearly-identical bills aim to help ensure drinking water across the USA is safe from lead and copper contamination, and would update the Lead and Copper Rule, lowering the lead action level from 15 parts per billion (ppb) currently, to 10 ppb by 2020 and 5 ppb by 2026. The bill would also create a lead-service-line inventory to help monitor contaminated service lines and ensure the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develops a universal testing protocol to make sure the entire lead service line is replaced if water contamination is detected, as partial replacement does not eliminate the risk of contamination.
caption: President Barack Obama sips filtered Flint water following a roundtable on the crisis at Northwestern High School on May 4, 2016.
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