Daniel Kildee

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, so far this House of Representatives has done nothing to help the people of my hometown of Flint, Michigan. I left Flint this morning, and I left behind a city of 100,000 people who for 2 years now have not been able to drink the water coming out of their tap. It is a disaster, it is a public health crisis, and it demands a response not just from the State government, which clearly is principally responsible for what happened. The people of my hometown are American citizens and have a right to have their national government, the Federal Government, step in and help them in the moment of their greatest need. This is the job of the United States Congress. We have legislation that would provide relief to the people of Flint rather than arguing over blame. That will come in time. There has been plenty of time devoted to that subject. The legislation that I offer would have the Federal Government and the State government equally share in the cost of putting this community back together and getting the people in Flint, Michigan, something that every American ought to be able to get up in the morning and take for granted, and that is that the water they drink is clean, safe, and will not make them sick. It is time for this House to act.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended. This Republican bill is unnecessary because the IRS already, as has been said, has rules in place to terminate employees that are delinquent on their taxes. But it is important to note that out of the entire Federal Government, the employees of the Treasury Department have the lowest tax delinquency rate, a rate of 1.19 percent, one- fourth the delinquency rate for the U.S. House of Representatives, which is over 5 percent, and substantially lower than the delinquency rate for the general public, which is about 9 percent. My motion would stop this bill from going into effect in any year that the Federal tax delinquency rate of either the House or the Senate is more than that of the Treasury Department. It is that simple. You know what we are doing here. We are taking precious time on the floor of this House of Representatives to deal with a bill that will go nowhere, that has no impact, and is simply a talking point to continue to beat up the IRS. Meanwhile, we have public health crises taking place. The Zika crisis, which endangers pregnant women, what have we done on the floor of the House to deal with that real crisis? What have you brought to the floor for us to vote on? Nothing. And in my own hometown of Flint, Michigan, a city of 100,000 people who now for 2 years have not been able to drink water that comes from the tap because it has been poisoned by the terrible decisions of its State government, a community in crisis that has every right to expect that its government, its Federal Government, would come to the aid of these people, 100,000 people poisoned by their own State government in crisis, 9,000 children under the age of 6 who for 2 years have had lead going into their bodies. Lead is a neurotoxin. Three people today in Michigan have been criminally charged for inflicting this terrible tragedy on my hometown, a city in America in crisis, facing a disaster. And what is the response of the United States Congress? What is the response of the Republican leadership? Not 1 minute devoted to coming up with a solution for the people in Flint. Nothing. More messaging bills, more talk, no help for people in crisis, no effort to deal with the Zika crisis, and nothing, nothing for this great American city facing an existential threat and facing generations of impacts, unless the State, that so far has failed to step up, and the Federal Government act. I sat through the hearings that have been held here in the United States Congress and listened to Members, Democrats and Republicans, offer concern and offer sympathy. But when I introduced the Families of Flint Act, an effort that would share equally the responsibility for solving this terrible crisis between the State and Federal Government, rather than arguing about who was at fault--we all have a sense that the State of Michigan is at greatest fault--but rather than litigating that question, we seek to solve the problem. Not only do I not yet have one Republican cosponsor who has been willing to step up, nearly 100 Democrats have, and I am sure there will be more. And I asked for help from my friends on the other side, but no time on this floor has been devoted to what is clearly one of the biggest crises facing this Nation--a great American city facing a threat, a literal threat to its existence, a threat to the health of those people, a threat to the future of those children. One of the first votes I cast when I came here to the House of Representatives was to cast a vote to provide relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy, not my district, not my community, not my region, but fellow Americans. I was proud of that vote. I was proud that, at that moment, on that day, as a Member of the House of Representatives, I was first an American, and when other Americans were suffering, we were willing to help. Why not Flint? Why spend time on these meaningless political messaging bills when there are real problems in this country that need to be addressed? Mr. Speaker, I ask that we put aside this nonsense and get to the work that the American people sent us here to do. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KILDEE. I am opposed.

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, last week the House Republican leadership blew past the deadline to adopt the budget. Instead of coming together to enact a budget that invests in American jobs, grows our economy, and builds the paychecks of American workers, Republicans actually decided intentionally not to pass a budget at all. Even worse, in my hometown of Flint, Michigan, 100,000 people can't drink their water because it has been poisoned by lead through decisions made by its own State government. It is in crisis. There is a bill in the Senate and there is a bill in this House to provide relief to this great city during a disaster, and this Congress won't bring up that bill, nor will it bring up legislation to deal with the opioid epidemic or the Zika virus epidemic. This is shameful. This is the Congress of the United States. We are supposed to do the work of the American people. We have people in crisis in my own hometown, and we can't get Congress to act, not on a budget, not on health for Flint, and not on Zika. We need to do our job in the body of this United States Congress.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I ask the United States House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Mr. Charles Ruggles for the support he has offered to the city of Flint and its residents during the Flint Water Crisis. Mr. Ruggles is a professional photographer who formed the Flint Teens Matter project as a response to the water crisis. As a result of the crisis, some families may not have the resources to have professional portraits taken for their graduates. The mission of Mr. Ruggles' project is to provide free senior photos to high school students in the city who have been impacted by the ongoing water crisis. Mr. Ruggles empowers his cause through a strategy of social networking to recruit photographers and donors from around Michigan to join his efforts. Additionally, he accomplishes his project's mission by graciously donating his own time to schedule and shoot photography sessions with teens of families who have been affected by the crisis. This gesture leaves a lifelong impact on students and their families, and one that might not be present without Mr. Ruggles' commendable and charitable efforts. It is my honor to represent such active and charitable members of our community, and Charles Ruggles is a shining example. The type of direct and individual care that Mr. Ruggles has shown is exactly what the citizens of Flint need. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the work done by Mr. Charles Ruggles and thank him for the service he has provided to the students and city of Flint.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, by law, Congress must enact a budget resolution by April 15. That is Friday. Yet, after months of promising to return to so-called regular order, Speaker Ryan has failed to bring a budget to the floor of this House for us to act upon. I don't know about you, but my constituents, the people I work for, are tired of a do-nothing Congress. The Republican majority has failed to pass a budget resolution. We need a resolution that supports working families, a budget that supports growing the economy in this country. But instead of that, the Republicans have decided not to pass a budget at all. Under this Republican majority, rather than working with those of us on this side of the aisle and finding some common ground around a budget resolution, the majority has been held hostage to the most extreme voices within their conference--the Tea Party members. And because they want to cut Medicare, change it in ways that I think would be destructive to our economy, they can't bring a budget to the floor of the House of Representatives. We need to do our job.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I ask the United States House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Ms. Lanice Lawson for the support she has offered to the city of Flint and its residents during the Flint Water Crisis. With nearly 15 years of experience in the nursing field as an RN, Ms. Lawson knew all too well the devastating effects of lead in the body. Although no longer a resident of Flint herself, she empathized with the struggles of those affected by the water crisis specifically the children. Out of concern for these children, she organized the Bottles for Babies initiative. Ms. Lawson's original intent was to supply the school children of Flint with clean drinking water. The water in the Flint community schools had been completely shut off and the children were expected to bring their own bottled water to school each day. With the need for clean water being so great across the city, Bottles for Babies was later extended to include consistent home deliveries to the elderly and physically handicapped. To date over $65,000 has been raised by the Bottles for Babies GoFundMe fundraiser and over a quarter of a million bottles of water have been delivered to Flint residents. This is the type of direct support the people of Flint need. The type of support the city of Flint is still not receiving from its own State government. Mr. Speaker, I applaud the work done by Ms. Lanice Lawson and thank her for the service she has provided to the city of Flint.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, 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.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for her leadership. Congresswoman Kaptur has always been a great ally for me and even my predecessor, my uncle, on working to preserve and protect this incredible natural asset that we have--the Great Lakes. Listening to Congresswoman Kaptur and Congressman Kelly refer to your childhood, we all--those of us from the Great Lakes region--remember and recall, from our childhood, our introduction to the Great Lakes. The very shape of my home State of Michigan is defined by the lakes. Lake Huron is on the east, Lake Michigan is on the west, a touch of Lake Erie, and, of course, Lake Superior to the north. It defines the shape of our State. As a child, I still remember the first time experiencing the lakes, and they did seem as though they were something that were so big, they was almost impossible to comprehend. But it was also something that, as a child, I took for granted. We all took for granted that the lakes would always be there, that they would always be pure, that they would always be clear and cold--the way we recalled them as children. Of course, what we come to know, as policymakers, is that we can't be put in a position to take that for granted. We have to actively protect that incredible gift that has been handed to us simply as a creation of God. We have this enormously special stewardship. Two things I want to point out that I think are part of the stewardship responsibility that we have to and for the Great Lakes. One, of course, is to defend the lakes against any threat that might manifest now or might manifest generations from now, whether that is working to protect the lakes from invasive species like Asian carp or a very special obligation that I think we have right now, working with our friends across the border on the Canadian side, and that is to protect the lakes from unnecessary and unwarranted threats. There has been, in the planning stages, the possibility of a nuclear waste storage facility that would be on the eastern shore of Lake Huron. It would be six-tenths of a mile from the shore of that lake. I am pleased to see that our friends within the new Canadian Government have sort of taken a pause to reevaluate whether that site is the best site. Of course, my position and the position of many Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, has been that there is a special line that we must draw when it comes to protecting the lakes. We have a chance to ask that--in this case, the Canadian Government, and specifically the Ontario Power Generation--they reconsider the location of a nuclear waste storage facility so that now, 100 or 200 years from now, if some event may occur that would release some of that material, we would never put the lakes at risk. That is something that we can do. It is a tangible set of steps that we can take. But it is just an example of the special responsibility that I know I now have as a Member of Congress representing the Great Lakes region. It is not until you are sworn into office and take an oath to uphold the Constitution and represent the people that you live with back home that you come to understand the magnitude of that responsibility, especially for maintaining the lakes. Of course, the other point that Congresswoman Kaptur mentioned is that we also have a special responsibility to continue to take advantage of the fact that we have been given this gift, and we have to use it in a way that is sustainable but also allows us to use the pure and clear lake water in a way that protects us. Of course, the very bad decisions that were made at the State government level that led to the crisis in my hometown of Flint were decisions to move temporarily away from using lake water for our drinking water to using river water in the Flint River as our primary drinking water source. It is almost unimaginable that that would happen, considering that we are literally surrounded by the greatest source, the largest source of surface freshwater on the planet and that a community would temporarily use that drinking water. It also makes the point that the protections of our water resources are special protections that we have to make sure are adhered to. This crisis in Flint, or any other crisis, such as the issue that I know Congresswoman Kaptur is very familiar with--you may have already addressed the algal bloom that you dealt with in the lake that affected drinking water in Toledo and other places--we have a special responsibility to make sure that we are, through our Environmental Protection Agency and State environmental quality agencies, aggressively defending the Great Lakes, not just to maintain their natural beauty, not just to maintain them as recreational assets, but to make sure that, when we use that water for something as fundamental as drinking water, we know it will always be safe and protected. I want to thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on the issue of the Great Lakes and for including me as a part of this bipartisan effort to make sure that we always take care of this unique and special stewardship responsibility to protect the greatest freshwater source on the planet.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark the start of Women's History Month and to honor all of the women who have shaped our country's history. So many women have shattered glass ceilings along the way, like my friend Dolores Watkins Ennis, one of the first African American secondary schoolteachers in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. While this month we celebrate all of the great achievements of women like Dolores, let us not lose sight of the barriers that women still face in this country. Women make up almost half of all workers. Working mothers are the primary breadwinners for many American families, yet the fight for justice, for equal rights and greater opportunity is far, far from over. We need to promote policies that mean greater opportunity for women and their families, like commonsense sick leave and making child care more affordable. As a Nation, we have to make sure that women who are doing the same work as men get equal pay for that work. This country is a place where we should be building an economy that works for everyone, meaning all families. We owe it to our mothers, to our daughters, and to our granddaughters.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give some thanks to some of my fellow Members of Congress for coming to my hometown of Flint, Michigan, yesterday. Specifically, I want to thank Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, and my friend and classmate Congressman Scott Peters, who spent the day with me yesterday in Flint. I want to thank them for having the back of the people of my hometown who are suffering right now with a water crisis that makes their water, the water for 100,000 people, not just undrinkable, but very dangerous. I also want to thank my Michigan colleagues Congressman Sander Levin and Congressman John Conyers for their many visits to Flint. The people in Flint are victims of a form of neglect that is almost unimaginable: neglect by their own government, by the State of Michigan, which was operating the city of Flint and failed to protect those citizens by ensuring clean and safe drinking water. This is a crisis that demands a response equal to the gravity of this crisis. It demands a Federal response. It clearly demands a response from the State of Michigan far greater than what it has been given.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. I appreciate all the comments and the support, especially the sympathy and, really, unity with the people of my hometown of Flint. I do want to ensure, though, that we are properly characterizing the legislation, its reasoning, and its impact. The legislation would actually not just require EPA to provide notice, but would require the local jurisdiction, the State agency, to provide them with the opportunity to do what they should do anyway, that is, to provide notice. Absent their willingness to do so, the EPA would then be required. It is an important distinction because, in this case, the State of Michigan has primacy in enforcement of these rules. The EPA in the case of Flint did take action when they learned of the elevated lead levels. The action was to repeatedly reach out to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and insist that they enforce the lead and copper rule. Actually, they went so far as to insist that they initiate corrosion control, which is the mechanism by which lead leaching would have been prevented. Not only did the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality fail to act, they actually told the EPA almost a year ago that they actually had initiated corrosion control when they had not. I think it would be a mistake to create some sort of equivalency between the role of the EPA and the role of the State of Michigan in this. It was the State of Michigan that had prime responsibility that failed. The EPA, while I would have preferred that they had shouted from the mountaintop that they were having this problem getting the lead agency to enforce the rule, there was at least confusion as to whether or not they had the authority to do so. Even today, the State of Michigan continues to push back on the EPA's attempts to test water to insist on enforcement. It is an important distinction to make. Regarding my friend Mr. Sanford's comments, I appreciate his reflection on the financial situation within the city of Flint. While that is a set of questions that clearly needs attention, the truth of the matter is, had the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality insisted on the use of corrosion control in the Flint water system, as the law would require, the cost would have been $140 a day. All of this could have been prevented by the State simply requiring that $140 a day be spent. This legislation is important in preventing this from happening again so that an agency of a State that refuses to enforce the law at least can't do so in the dark; and if the State won't give public notice, it would require the EPA to do so. This is an important step. We have crafted this legislation to make sure that each level of government is transparent when it comes to these issues.

Mr. KILDEE. I thank Mr. Tonko for his comments and his support and leadership on this issue. And I would like him to please extend my thanks to Ranking Member Pallone for his effort and his support. I know he is dealing with a difficult time himself right now, and we extend our best wishes to him. I want to thank all of my Michigan colleagues for joining as original cosponsors of this legislation; and I particularly thank Chairman Upton for his help, his guidance, his assistance and, really, collaboration on getting a piece of legislation put together that we think is very helpful in preventing another situation such as what has occurred in my hometown from ever happening again in the United States. I again thank Mr. Upton for his assistance and leadership on this. Flint is my home. The people I represent are the people I grew up with in Flint, Michigan. It is a great community. It has been through some struggles, for sure, in the last few decades, but we have never dealt with anything quite like this, something so fundamental as safe drinking water that we take for granted. You turn on the faucet, as Mr. Upton said, you expect the water that comes out of that faucet to be safe for yourself, for your children, to make formula, to cook food, to drink. And because of a series of decisions that really are almost incomprehensible in their impact, people in Flint, Michigan, can't drink their water; 100,000 people can't drink the water. The thing that makes me most upset--sad, yes, but also angry--is that this crisis, this situation, which will last for decades in its impact, was completely avoidable. Unlike a lot of other struggles that my hometown has faced as a result of big changes in the economy--development patterns, et cetera-- this was a series of decisions that we can easily identify that could easily have been prevented with just more thought and more care and, in this case, a stronger set of requirements for disclosure when lead levels are elevated in a drinking water system. So this legislation is one step. It is not the total solution. We really have to deal--and I hope my colleagues will also join us--with putting together a response to the crisis being felt by the people in Flint right now. This bill, unfortunately, is too late to help them, but it can help the next Flint, perhaps. This would require the EPA to provide notice if the State agency responsible for enforcement of the clean drinking water laws does not act to provide notice to the citizens affected and to the water system. Let me just be clear on that. The State of Michigan, in the case of the Flint situation, has primacy in terms of enforcement of these laws. It is their obligation to ensure that the clean drinking water laws are enforced, to collect data, to do sampling and testing, and to provide remediation, to provide intervention, if, in fact, it is not the case. So, yes, there has been a failure of government, but I think we have to take care not to attempt to create some sort of false sense of equivalency of responsibility. The city of Flint, for example, which is the most local level of government and where the water system is operated, was under the control of an emergency manager, a State official appointed to overtake operation of the city of Flint. So to the extent that the city was responsible, the city was the State in this regard. In terms of the Federal role, there was apparent confusion or disagreement as to whether the EPA had authority, absent State notification to the public of the data that they had, whether the EPA had authority to go public, to make it clear that there was a problem. This legislation addresses that. This legislation strengthens the hand of those who work at the EPA and actually requires them--not simply allows, but requires them--to provide notice to the public and to a water system operator in the event that the State fails to do so. Had that happened, it would not have prevented the bad decisions that led to this crisis, but it would have prevented them from going on for months and months and months with no action to protect the people in Flint. This is important legislation. We need more. We need help for the people of Flint. But this is a step in the right direction in preventing what happened in Flint from happening to another community.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, my hometown is Flint, Michigan. When we leave here at the end of every week, I fly home to Flint. This is a very proud community. It is the birthplace of General Motors. It is where the UAW workers sat down in 1936 to get the first UAW contract to help build the middle class. The last few decades have been tough for my community. We have taken a lot of hits, a lot of poverty, high unemployment, but we have always been able to get back up again as a community because there are strong people in Flint, Michigan. What has happened now in Flint is because of careless actions by State officials who put dollars and cents ahead of the health of people, ahead of the health of 9,000 children. We can get back up again in Flint, but we need a State response far more robust than what has been recommended by Michigan's Governor and we need help from the Federal Government. These people are American citizens. If the State won't act to make it right for the people of Flint, we need our Federal Government to do everything in its power to help these people and help Flint get back up again.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, the families and the children exposed to high levels of lead in my hometown of Flint deserve action by the people who did this to them. The State of Michigan--Governor Snyder's administration--created this public health emergency through their own inaction and by decisions that their appointed emergency manager made in the city of Flint, which has led to this crisis. They need to act in a manner equal to the gravity of this terrible situation. The Federal Government can help as well. The President has already declared a state of emergency, but Congress can act, too. I have legislation that I introduced last week that is a comprehensive set of solutions that not only deals with the need to replace those lead service lines that are leaching lead into the water system in households, but also provides the kind of support for children and families to get through this crisis and give them, as individuals, and my community, as a community, a chance on a future. Resources are needed, not just a get well card, not just an apology, but we need financial resources. The State needs to step up. I am asking this Congress to do so as well.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for conducting this Special Order and raising attention to this situation. Particularly on behalf of the people that I represent, the 100,000 people in my hometown of Flint, as difficult as this time has been, they do get some strength from the fact that Members of Congress from all across the country and, frankly, Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have expressed their concern. It is my sincere hope that the concern expressed for the people of Flint will not just come in the form of sympathy, but will actually move us to take action. Let me just take a moment to tell you about my hometown. This is a city that was the birthplace of General Motors in 1908. This is a city that actually helped build the labor movement. In 1936 and 1937, the workers in the factories occupied those factories until, on February 11, they got that first UAW contract that actually helped build the middle class. The reason I mention that is that it is a city that has great pride in the contribution that it has made over the decades to the incredible productive capacity of our society. With that pride as a backdrop, the last few decades have been really tough because we have seen the loss of manufacturing jobs. We have seen big changes in our economy. The community has become smaller. It has gone from 200,000 people to about 100,000 now. We have lost an enormous amount of the manufacturing base that we once had, and it was really the engine of our economy. Of course, the effect of all that is to challenge the community and its very existence. The city itself has struggled to keep its budgets balanced to provide essential services. Then a few years ago a decision was made at the State level to reduce and, in fact, eliminate State support for cities. That kind of support was necessary for the city to provide the essential role that it plays in a regional economy. As a result of that decision, the city was in significant financial stress, really on the verge of bankruptcy. The State of Michigan's solution, rather than provide support-- additional funding, economic development, workforce development, better schools--that is not the solution. Those are the things that would make a difference. Instead, the State of Michigan appoints an emergency manager that suspends the authority of the city council and the mayor, as if this city that is struggling as a result of disinvestment only needs new management. Worse yet, the charge to these emergency managers--and we have them in Michigan and lots of different communities and school districts--is to get in there and get the budget balanced. The tool they have is a budget scalpel. There are no additional resources, just a knife to cut the budget. In the case of Flint, one of the places they chose to cut was the essential service of drinking water, temporarily shifting, as a result of an emergency manager's decision, to the Flint River. Now, folks don't need to be mad at the river. It is just the river. Actually, it is quite beautiful now since it is no longer used as an open sewer. Some of it has been restored, but it is still river water. It is 19 times more corrosive than the Great Lakes water that we have drawn from decades as our water source. In a rush to save money, the decision was made to use this river. In an almost inexplicable decision to save a few hundred dollars--really, I think it is estimated at about $100 a day--they didn't treat the water with orthophosphate to control corrosion of the pipes. That is what led to the pipes leaching lead into the water system, into the households, into the bodies of human beings, and into 9,000 children under the age of 6 who are the real victims of this. It is not good for adults. There is no acceptable level of lead in the human body. It is a neurotoxin. But for children it is especially dangerous because it affects brain development in a way that is permanent. So what we need now, since this was done to Flint by the failure of the emergency manager to think about something other than dollars and cents, and the failure of the State, despite repeated warnings, including warnings from the EPA, that they should be applying corrosion control and that this is going to have consequences, they treated it like it was a public relations problem for them, not a public health problem for 100,000 people. So the damage has been done. We have two questions to ask ourselves. One is: How do we make sure this never happens again? Getting rid of the emergency manager law would be a big step in the right direction, making sure that not only do we have adequate regulations regarding clean water, but the agencies charged with them have adequate authority and resources to enforce. That would go a long way to prevent this from happening again. Legislation that myself and my colleagues from Michigan are introducing would ensure that, when the EPA is aware of a problem like this, they would have to make it public. That would go a long way. The other question is: How do we make it right for the people in Flint, especially for the children? The State did this. It was their decision. Virtually everybody back home has no doubt about that question. There is an effort right now to try to obfuscate responsibility. That is really because, in my view--and this is only my opinion--by accepting responsibility for what happened means that there is the responsibility to make it right. I just fear that the State of Michigan is trying to avoid that kind of responsibility. To make it right, we need to spend some money on infrastructure, take up those lead service lines that have been so damaged by this corrosive water and replace them with something that will not deliver lead into the water system and to improve the infrastructure so that it is more sustainable. Most importantly and finally, to make it right in Flint, we have to make sure the kids, who are the real victims of this, are given every opportunity that we can give them to overcome something that their government did to them. That means giving them opportunities like every child having access to Early Head Start, every child being enrolled in Head Start, every child having enrichment opportunities, every child being given all the help they can, all the support they can, for proper nutrition, every child having a small class size so that teacher-student contact is real and not packed in a classroom of 35 or 40 kids, summer youth activity, summer employment. All of the things that we would do as parents for one of our own children struggling to overcome a developmental hurdle is what the State of Michigan owes to the 9,000 children of Flint under the age of 6 that have been subjected to high levels of lead. That is the moral obligation of the State of Michigan. I just hope--and I know my colleagues stand with me--that, if the State is unwilling to step up and do the right thing, we recognize that these children, these citizens, the people I represent, just like the people we all represent, are not just residents of a State, but they are citizens of the United States, just like when a storm hits, when we have a chance and the capacity to do something to ease that suffering, to provide opportunity to overcome a manmade disaster, that we are willing to stand up and do that. I can't tell you how much I thank my colleagues for taking some time this week--particularly my colleagues from Michigan, but the folks from all over the country, have been helpful. This is a real crisis, and it deserves a response equal to the gravity of the crisis. On behalf of the people I represent, thank you so much.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. I thank you for that question, because that is really the core of what we are dealing with right now. We need a lot of help in Flint. This could have been avoided. But now that this has occurred, there is some work we need to do to fix the pipes. There is some work we need to do to make sure the emergency needs are met--temporary water. But the real need is this human need. Lead is a neurotoxin. It affects development of the brain. The citizens who are most at risk are those children who are still in those early developmental stages, particularly children age 6 and under. Literally, children feeding, drinking formula made with this water will have the trajectory of their lives potentially affected. The thing that I think is important to keep in mind is, first of all, Flint is a tough town. We can live through this; we can get through this; we can succeed; but we are going to need resources. We need resources, really, to come from the people who did this to us, which is the State government with, I think, a completely bankrupt philosophy that basically says you are on your own. Well, you are not on your own when it comes to drinking water. We all expect drinking water to be clean. We have every right to expect that. It is a human right. But what we need now and what I think is morally required is to wrap our arms around these kids. We know that when it comes to brain development and challenges the kids might face, whether it is from a developmental question from some other source or derived from lead exposure, the more we do to help those children develop as early as possible, the better they will do in the long term. So, I will have legislation that I will introduce this week that puts Federal support in--and requires the State of Michigan to come up with its share, because they did this--so that we expand Head Start, Early Head Start, and that we give those kids the early opportunity to expand their minds; also, that we get them nutritional support, because we know that good, nutritious food--milk, for example--is very helpful in getting kids through lead exposure with minimal impact. Now, it is only to mitigate the damages and help these kids overcome, but what we need to do now as a community is what we would do for any child facing a developmental challenge. It is early childhood education. It is nutritional support. It is a school nurse, for example. We have gone so far in this country that we don't even fund the basics that we all grew up with. We all had a school nurse. You go to Flint, Michigan, a city of 100,000 people, and we have one school nurse. Also, it is after-school programming, enrichment opportunities. Most of the kids in my hometown, sadly, already have hurdles in front of them because of the misfortune of being born into poverty. They don't have the kind of opportunities that many kids take for granted: piano lessons, dance, art, after-school activities, gym time, a summer program. Maybe for the older kids, a summer job. That is the kind of help that will be required in order to move these kids from where they were headed before this crisis occurred and what the trajectory of their lives looks like right now. So the point is there are human consequences for the failure to do this right in the first place. And when we have a State government that failed these kids, they now have a moral obligation to step up and actually take care of their needs going forward.

Mr. KILDEE. Well, first of all, let me thank my friend, Mr. Garamendi, not just for that introduction and for his comments about my hometown, but for his leadership on this issue. This is the critical issue that really determines whether we are competitive as a Nation. But it goes beyond competitiveness. It is the issue that will determine whether we have true national security. But it goes beyond national security. Sometimes it is a matter of life and death. Sometimes it is really a matter of health. In my hometown, the issue of failed infrastructure, particularly of the State of Michigan and their failure to manage infrastructure, let alone reinvest in it potentially, will affect not just 100,000 people, all of the citizens there, but, most importantly, will affect the trajectory of the lives of 9,000 children under the age of 6 who, for the last year and a half, have been drinking water that has elevated lead levels well beyond what normally would be required in order to take drastic action to correct the problem. And it was largely overlooked because of a failed philosophy of government in the State of Michigan that put short-term interest, short-term dollars-and-cents measures of success, ahead of not just long-term investment, but ahead of the lives of children that has resulted in this terrible tragedy. I will just take a moment to tell you what happened and to support the efforts of my friend Mr. Garamendi in continuing to raise this question. The letter grade graph he showed regarding clean drinking water showed in the aggregate a grade of D. In Flint, it was an F. It was a failing grade. So, the failure to invest in infrastructure, and particularly urban infrastructure--roads, bridges, and water--led to significant economic difficulty in my hometown of Flint. The failure of the State to support cities--and, in fact, they cut direct support in cities--resulted in my hometown going into financial stress. The State then appointed a receiver to take over the city. Rather than provide support, rather than rebuild, it appointed a receiver, a financial manager, to go in with one tool, and one tool only, and that was a scalpel, to cut the budget of a city that was really begging for investment. Instead of investment, more cuts. One of the cuts was, for a temporary period of time until a regional pipeline to Lake Huron was completed, to draw drinking water from the Flint River, which for decades functioned as an open industrial sewer. In the State of Michigan, where we have the world's greatest source of surface water, freshwater, there was a decision to use the Flint River. But because of our aging infrastructure, old infrastructure, and lots of lead pipes, including thousands and thousands of lead service lines to homes, and the failure of the State to manage this process and treat the water effectively, highly corrosive water leached lead into the drinking water, and 100,000 people have been subjected to elevated lead levels. Thousands of children have potentially been affected. The sad story here is that it all could have easily been prevented with just a little bit of investment and better management of the infrastructure. But we take water infrastructure for granted, as if all we have to do is turn on the faucet and the water will appear. No, it takes investment; it takes money; it takes resources. In this case, the State's failure has resulted in something that we hope is not repeated across this country; but without investment, there will be more Flint, Michigans. So what we need now is to call upon the State particularly to make the kind of investment in Flint to make it right. As I said, 9,000 children in the city of Flint under the age of 6 have substantially elevated lead levels from the water that showed up in their blood in tests done by a courageous pediatrician, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who was one of the people who blew the whistle on this. So now we have a crisis in Flint. We have a loss of faith in government. But it is a crisis because this city is really at risk. We need significant investment to make it right. That investment would come in the form of a long overdue replacement of those lead service lines, that lead piping that is outdated, obsolete, and dangerous. Because of the failure to deal with this when it was a less expensive investment, we now have, I think, a very important moral responsibility on the State of Michigan to take care of the unique needs that these children will face as they go through their developmental stages. We need early childhood education for all of them. We need good nutritional programming--and not just to make it available, but to ensure sure they have good nutrition. We need additional help in the schools. We need behavioral support. There are consequences. There are human consequences to this failure. It is not just that the water looks bad, smells bad, tastes bad. It is unhealthy. Again, I hope Flint's experience can be an experience for the rest of the country, because the way our State treated the people of Flint was as if they didn't matter. They allowed this infrastructure to atrophy, allowed the city to atrophy, didn't support redevelopment, didn't support even the basic need of $140 a day to provide corrosion control treatment in this aging water system. All of that could have prevented this terrible tragedy, but they didn't do it. So now the State of Michigan bears the principal responsibility. I am doing everything I can to get Federal help for this, but the State of Michigan bears the principal responsibility. As far as I am concerned, it is up to them to make it right. The message that my friend has been bringing to this Congress when it comes to this question of infrastructure is that Flint proves that it matters what we do here. It matters what we do in this House. The fact is we have known as a Nation for a long time that, if we are going to be safe, if we are going to be competitive, if we are going to be healthy, we have to invest in that which we take for granted. Think about it, water, drinkable water. Most people in this room, most people in America never give it a second thought. You just turn on the faucet and it is there. It is literally what we depend upon for our very lives. In Flint, Michigan, because of this terrible failure, not only was it not safe, but we poisoned 9,000 children as a result. There are consequences to what we do here, and there are consequences to what we don't do here. So for those Members who have expressed their sympathy, I appreciate that, I sincerely do. But the children of Flint, the people of Flint, and, frankly, the people of Porterville and everywhere else need more than sympathy. We need investment. We need this Congress and this country to step up and do what it is right and invest in our own future, because if we don't, as you can tell, there are consequences. Thank you for your leadership on this.

Mr. KILDEE. I will. I read this. It came from a writer from Detroit, a guy named Mitch Albom, who most people know for having written a bestseller, ``Tuesdays with Morrie.'' He came to Flint to interview children and to talk about what this whole experience meant to them. One young man said something which, in a very poignant way, in a really eloquent way, describes what exactly happened in Flint. The little boy said that he was afraid that he wouldn't be smart now, that he wouldn't be smart. It just occurred to me what a terrible crime this is, the failure of adults to manage the government in a way that takes the concerns of the life of a child into account and looks only at a balance sheet, only at a quarterly earnings statement--maybe the longest term that they look at it is an annual financial report--and wouldn't consider the fact that the result would be to have a young 8- or 9-year-old boy say to himself, ``I am afraid I won't be smart.'' What does that do to that kid's hopes for himself, whether the cognitive, behavioral, or developmental impact of lead would have any substantial effect on him or her, kids that are in Flint? The fact that the lack of action by the government gives them doubt about their own future, doubt about their own capacity is just heartbreaking.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Chairman, let me first thank the gentleman for his kind words and his concern over my hometown. It is an extraordinarily difficult situation. Sadly, it is actually the creation of a series of decisions by our State government to switch from the freshest, cleanest water on the planet, the Great Lakes, to the Flint River in order to save a few dollars, and then the failure of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to enforce even the minor protections that it has available to it. The reason I am offering this amendment and the reason that I offer it on this particular piece of legislation is that, in my hometown, it was led and it was a bad set of decisions made by an emergency financial manager. In another community, it may be another source. My view--and the reason I offer this amendment--is that we ought to do everything within our power in this Congress to make sure that we protect our environment and particularly protect drinking water. I believe my amendment would do that. I urge my colleagues to support it. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Chairman, first of all, the underlying bill is an attempt to delay the implementation of the stream protection rule, an important rule that protects our Nation's rivers, our streams, and the nearby communities from the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. My amendment would not allow any rule that improves drinking water quality to be delayed. Ensuring that we protect our streams and rivers--often important sources of drinking water--is of vital importance. Listen, I know firsthand something about what happens when regulations are not strong enough to protect drinking water. Today, in my hometown of Flint, safeguards for better drinking water could have prevented the entire city and upwards of 10,000 children under the age of 6 from being exposed to dangerous levels of lead. Lead is a deadly neurotoxin that is especially harmful to young children. It can permanently lower the IQ, increase disruptive behavior, and stunt neurological development. These children in my hometown, many of whom already have great hurdles to overcome because of the misfortune of the ZIP code into which they were born--communities of very high poverty--now must endure another blow to their futures due to the decisions that were outside of their control and the lack of effective protection of their drinking water. No other community should ever face that same danger, the danger of having their children literally poisoned by unsafe, contaminated drinking water. My amendment will ensure important protections for other communities. Look, I have seen my community live through this. They continue to live through it. We should be doing everything we can not to weaken protections for drinking water, but to strengthen them to prevent this from ever happening anywhere else. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.