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Flint Water Crisis Congressional Hearing Rejected by Michigan GOP Gov. Snyder

By Nick Younker
Published on: 10:46 PST, Feb 8, 2016

The Flint water crisis has been going on now for far too long, and residents of the Michigan city still have no end in sight for their potential healthcare problem. But to make matters even worse, their own elected Republican Governor, Rick Snyder, has rejected a request by Congress to testify on the crisis.

According to a report on CNN, Snyder was supposed to give testimony on the Flint water crisis before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in regards to the potential fallout for children in Flint.

Although the committee was to conduct the hearing on official business for the U.S. House of Representatives, they do not have subpoena power in this case. In part, they were to have convened to discuss why the water crisis had even occurred and who is to blame for the issue.

In the report, the congressional committee was not only looking for answers for the people of Flint, but also how it has affected young children and infants in the area who could be potentially harmed to a more extreme degree due to the high levels of lead present in the city’s drinking water.

Since the committee did not have subpoena power for the Flint water crisis, that means that Governor Snyder did not have to show up if he optioned not to. That turned out to be the case and Snyder officially declined their invitation to testify before the congressional committee on the Flint water crisis, which many have concluded that he himself was at fault for to start with.

The committee penned a letter to Snyder in regards to the Flint water crisis, which included scathing allegations against him. They reached out to the Governor in an effort for him to give “his side of the story.”

“Unfortunately, a prior Congressional hearing this week did not include top [Michigan] state officials, including emergency financial managers appointed by you [Snyder] to run the city of Flint,” the letter read. “Seeing how it was your administration’s decisions that led to this public health crisis, including Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law, we believe it is important to hear testimony from you on this matter.”

Snyder’s representative, Dave Murray, said that the Governor was busy with a budget presentation that he is supposed to give to the state legislature that day and will not be available to attend the hearing. Murray also noted that the presentation was supposed to detail the various resources the state has to help the people of Flint.

Meanwhile, the city of Flint is about to get dragged through court with various lawsuits piling up against them, as reported by CBS News.

To start out, the people of Flint have taken aim at Snyder, who was a former Mayor of the city, as well as public employees that are considered “rank-and-file.” The lawsuit alleges that Snyder and various other public servants in the city violated their civil rights by selling them contaminated drinking water.

The Flint water crisis lawsuit details 16 months of this continuous activity by Snyder and other employees, which also states that the illegal activity served their own political and financial gain in the process. On top of that, the water crisis suit claims to have wreaked havoc on the Flint’s property values.

In another suit involving the Flint water crisis, residents of the city are seeking a total replacement of public water lines at no charge to the residents.

There has also been a lawsuit filed over the Flint water crisis that represents the people with Legionnaires disease.

There has been no word yet on any hearings set for a committee in Congress with subpoena power to compel Governor Snyder to testify before Congress on the Flint water crisis.

[Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images]

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