Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I know there are others waiting to speak, and I will be brief. I want to take a couple of minutes to reflect on what just happened on the Senate floor.

We had a bipartisan bill that was shepherded through the Energy Committee by the chair, Senator Murkowski, and the ranking member, Senator Cantwell. Because our colleagues from Michigan refused to take yes for an answer--objecting to a vote on their very amendment--the Democratic caucus has come together and brought down this bipartisan bill--killing it, at least for the time being.

I share the majority leader's hope that discussions can continue and cooler, more reasonable minds will prevail, rather than just the gamesmanship that, frankly, frustrates all of us and gives Congress a bad name. We know that the vote that just went down was not about the Energy bill. This was about trying to embarrass Republicans and to try to make us look bad and portray us as having no compassion for the poor people of Flint--which is exactly the opposite of true.

The fact is that Senator Murkowski, who is the bill manager and chairman of the Energy Committee, made an offer for a vote on a $550 million package--a $550 million package. The Senator from Michigan has asked for a check for $600 million, but Senator Murkowski, in good faith, trying to be responsible, offered them an alternative of a $550 million package, and they refused it, instead choosing to bring down this legislation.

I think it is important to note that the State of Michigan has already appropriated somewhere close to $37 million, including funds specifically set aside for outside experts to conduct an infrastructure integrity study. The fact is, the State of Michigan and the city of Flint don't yet know what they need to do to fix the problem or how much it will cost, and the Senators from Michigan come in here and say: We don't need a plan. We just need cash upfront of $600 million. We want this added to the national debt--which is already $19 trillion.

I think the Senator from Alaska, the bill manager, made a very reasonable suggestion: Let the State and the city get started with the money that has been appropriated by the State, together with the tens of millions of dollars the Obama administration is making available to the State of Michigan that can then be available to the city of Flint to get started, to do the infrastructure integrity study, to come up with a plan. Then the Senators can come back to Congress--hopefully during the regular appropriations process--and come up with a responsible, shared plan for this local government, for the State government, and for the Federal Government to help the poor people of Flint out of this terrible crisis.

Instead, what we seem to have found happening is, in the immortal words of Rahm Emanuel--now the mayor of Chicago, formerly chief of Staff of the White House--never let a crisis go to waste. That is what is happening here. It is not responsible. It is not reasonable. And I think Senator Murkowski's counteroffer to the demands of the Senators from Michigan demonstrates it is not even a good-faith effort to try to solve the problem. It is just trying to put on a show vote and embarrass people.

We also need to understand that the Environmental Protection Agency bears significant responsibility. The Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency failed the people of Flint when they didn't act sooner. We heard that one Agency director has already resigned.

But let me be clear. There is no disagreement that we all want to work together to help the people of Flint find a solution once we have more information about the needs of the city and the State of Michigan and they know exactly what kind of help they need and in what amount. What we disagree on is that this bipartisan Energy bill should be held hostage until we know the solution. Frankly, that is beyond frustrating. It is disappointing. It is not serving our constituents and the American people the way we should, in a responsible, commonsense, bipartisan way. This is all about gamesmanship. This is all about ``gotcha.'' In other words, this is all about the things the American people have come to loathe and hate about the political process in Washington, DC.

We can do better. We must do better. And I share the majority leader's wish that negotiations continue and that cooler, more sensible minds come together on solutions that we can perhaps agree to.

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