Date: 2016-02-03
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. let me thank the gentlewoman for her generosity. and let me. first of all. thank her for leading the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I understand she is due a recognition. of which I celebrate. that she will have shortly. But let me thank her for her astuteness about state government. You come from state government. You understand oversight. You understand the responsibilities. You are the right person to lead this particular Special Order. Madam Speaker. it is important today to say that I fully support the proposed supportive services that have been accounted or recounted by Congressman KILDEE. Congresswoman LAWRENCE. and Congressman SCOTT. who is the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. We must embrace and surround those children. I must say it again. I said it earlier. For those of us who remember Jim Jones. who left California and gave a poisonous concoction to children in a foreign country. we have a Jim Jones in Michigan giving a poisonous concoction to the children of Flint. Michigan. So we are obviously upset about this. and we want the services to be provided for children. who are innocent. But. at the same time. wearing a hat that deals with the law and law and order. I must make the argument that there has to be a criminal investigation. Let me applaud the Department of Justice because I sent a letter January 14. 2016. to ask the Department of Justice to immediately investigate the actions of State officials in Michigan. They are actively engaged. The FBI is actively engaged. and their work is not for naught. Let me give you an example. Madam Speaker. very quickly. The Governor was asked to release his emails. Part of what he released was this black. redacted pages of information. He released some other materials that I think are telling. Here we are: "We need Treasury to work with Dan in Flint on a clear side by side comparison of the health benefits and costs of GLWA [Great Lakes Water Authority] vs. a more optimized Flint system." But heres the real key: "Also. we need to look at what financing mechanisms are available to Flint to pay for any higher cost actions." Madam Speaker. the Governor of the State of Michigan is sitting on $1 billion. Yet. he is asking a city that is near bankruptcy. controlled by an emergency manager under a State law that was rejected by the people of Michigan. to find out how they can pay for better water. They have no money to pay for better water. But let me tell you what they did. Instead of helping Flint pay for better water. helping them have a plan for anticorrosion. they paid an emergency manager under a law that was rejected by the voters of Michigan. This individual led the Detroits Public Schools as an emergency manager. I am told that that was literally brought to collapse. He was paid $180.000. Well. he didnt do that well enough that they wanted to give him $221.000. Let me say this. The emergency manager payment for the city of Flintlet me correct thatwas $180.000. When he did it for Detroits Public Schools. that came to near collapse. It was $221.000. From my perspective. there is much here that warrants a criminal investigation. Let me add to the point. On April 25. 2014. the city switches its water supply. Let me be very clear. The city leadersI served on city councilhad no authority because the emergency manager was in place. Did the emergency manager have an anticorrosion plan? No. Did they test the water when they opted to go cheap and save $5 million and go into the Flint River? No. The city switches its water supply. because of money. from a Detroit system that works. The switch was made as a costsaving measure for the struggling majorityBlack city of Flint. Soon after. residents began to complain about the waters color. taste. odor. and to report rashes and concerns about bacteria. In August and September 2014. city officials suggested that they boil the water. the complete wrong thing to do. They did not have a plan for anticorrosion. They did not follow the Federal law that indicated that you had to put phosphate. an anticorrosive element. into the water. So it continued to deteriorate and deteriorate. Guess what. Madam Speaker. and my colleagues. The emergency manager was never a scientist. It was not someone who said: Let me test the water before I order citizens to drink the water. That sounds to me like there is culpability and criminal culpability because lives have been endangered. And so I am looking forward to the attorney general of Michigan coming in. just as the Governor should. and looking forward to a thorough investigation. Madam Speaker. that will find some relief. My final point. Madam Speaker. is to say that the Governor is culpable. The Governor right now needs to go into his rainy day fund and provide the full funding requested by Mr. KILDEE and all others to fix the Flint water system.