Congressional Progressive Caucus: the Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mrs. DINGELL. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Watson Coleman for helping to organize this as well as the leadership of Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and Congressman Dan Kildee, who is fighting for the people of his district.

Madam Speaker, the first responsibility of government is to keep the American people safe, and it is clear that the government at every level failed the people of Flint. Clean and safe drinking water is a basic human right. Now we need to focus on the people of Flint first, the men and women and children, and what is happening there.

The most immediate need which we are still struggling with is what they need. People have been donating bottled water, but in Flint, mothers don't know what is safe and what is not safe because they are still getting conflicting information as to whether the water is safe to bathe in. They have rashes that no one can talk about. We have a Governor who says if he had grandchildren, it would be safe, and an attorney general who is saying if he had children in Flint, he wouldn't let them bathe. They don't even know what is safe.

We need to make sure that we are taking care of people, that they have access and clean water. These families have no transportation. They have set up water sites at five firehouses, and yet we don't think about it because we are so lucky. These people don't have transportation. Many of them have no way to get there. They are allowed one case of water a day. Now, think about that. If you are trying to bathe your children and you don't know if tap water is safe or if the filter is there. Think about if you are cooking spaghetti, a very common meal, you need bottled water to just cook the spaghetti. So we really need to think about the people of Flint and what it means to their daily life.

Secondly, we need to determine what it is they need long term, figure out the resources they need and all work together to get them. As my colleagues have so eloquently said--Mr. Kildee, Mrs. Lawrence--who is accountable? Hold people accountable and make sure this never happens again in America.

But having said that, there are 153,000 water systems in this country. Very bad decisions were made that made a community totally toxic. As my colleague Mr. Kildee said, not only do we have to fix the infrastructure, but we have almost 10,000 children who are going to need Head Start, they are going to need access for resources for probably a lifetime, for decades for health care, et cetera. How are we going to ensure that they have it? But how are we going to make sure that we are addressing this problem across the country and making sure it never happens again? We need to make sure that our government at every level never fails another community again.

The bringing of this tonight, the talking that all of us are doing, may we all work together to fix this manmade crisis and make sure we keep America safe for every other community.

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