On a visit to Michigan to investigate the Flint water crisis, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz says he’ll be seeking candid answers from Gov. Rick Snyder and EPA chief Gina McCarthy when they testify in Washington this week.
Reports The Detroit News:
The Utah Republican congressman overseeing hearings on the Flint water crisis said Saturday he wants to help the city’s families and a “candid assessment” from Gov. Rick Snyder when he testifies in Washington next week.
“I can’t imagine the families just wanting to turn on their tap water. They’re paying the highest rates in the country and not getting the water,” said an exasperated U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, as he met with Flint leaders and toured the city’s water treatment plant.
“This is the United States of America, we’re not supposed to be acting like some third-world country, this should not happen here,” he said.
Chaffetz’s oversight committee holds its second Flint hearing on Tuesday — one of two scheduled for next week. Snyder and Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, are scheduled to testify Thursday.
In regards to Snyder’s testimony, Chaffetz said he wants, “a candid assessment of where we’ve been and where we need to go.”
Chaffetz said the EPA’s response to the crisis “just boggles my mind. The idea that they knew about this almost a year ago and didn’t do anything, that they didn’t let anybody know.”
He said the actions of the EPA have been intolerable.
“It shouldn’t take an act of Congress —although we did it — to say you have to do this, to provide notification to residents within a 24-hour period, that should just be common sense,” he said.
