Governor Rick Snyder and EPA Adminstrator Gina McCarthy are about to go on the hot seat as they take their turn in front of a congressional panel looking into the Flint water crisis.
This is the second day of hearings this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on lead contamination of the water supply while the city was under state control.
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, is the ranking Democrat. Cummings says he has a lot of questions for Snyder.
“I’m looking forward to hearing exactly what he plans to do to make the citizens of Flint whole,” says Cummings. “When you break something, you have to fix it, and, I think there’s still a lot to be done in regards to the residents of Flint, and I think the governor has to come in and make clear what he’s going to do.”
“The governor is fully prepared to answer the questions that are asked of him,” says Snyder Communications Director Ari Adler. “He wants to explain to the members of Congress, and to the people of Flint once again what we are doing to address the current concerns from the people of Flint so that they can have fresh, clean water, we can deal with the infrastructure problems they have there.”
Republicans on the committee say they’re particularly interested in finding out why the EPA did not act sooner once top officials became aware of the lead contamination.
On Thursday, the former Midwest EPA chief was subjected to a blistering line of questioning over the agency’s inaction and the Republican chair of the oversight committee says McCarthy can expect similar treatment.
“The EPA wants responsibility over every puddle of water and they couldn’t deal with the biggest problem we have, which is Flint,” said U.S. Rep Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
*This post has been corrected to reflect that Rep. Elijah Cummings is from Maryland, not Georgia.
