Dan Kildee: “The ongoing crisis in my hometown of Flint, Michigan, is a real tragedy. This failure of government has affected 100,000…”

“The ongoing crisis in my hometown of Flint, Michigan, is a real tragedy. This failure of government has affected 100,000 people--adults and children--who, after months and months, still do not have clean drinking water. It is my view that the State of Michigan bears the principal responsibility for this crisis and should step up and do more. It was the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality that failed to a great extent. I know there are Members who share my view that there is responsibility at every level of government. We could argue about how we apportion that responsibility, but in the meantime, people in Flint still can't drink the water, and they need help. They deserve help from the State and from the Federal Government. They are citizens of Michigan, but also citizens of the United States, who are facing a disaster, a crisis, and have every right to expect that their government will step in to help them, especially when it is clear that it was the government that made the decisions that led to this crisis. So I ask that we not recess until we take up legislation to provide direct help to the city of Flint. It is something that I think is our moral responsibility. It is unconscionable that we would leave this body without acting. ____________________”