After the Congressional Hearings on Flint Water, What’s Next?
Who is more at fault for Flint: Governor Snyder or the Environmental Protection Agency?
This past week the House Oversight Committee questioned Governor Rick Snyder, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, and EPA administrator Gina McCarthy regarding the Flint water crisis.
Host Stephen Henderson speaks with Rick Pluta, Capitol Bureau Chief at the Michigan Public Radio Network, who attended the hearings. Pluta says, “There were times where…[the hearing] devolved into actual shouting.” Pluta describes the attitude of those questioned as, “’We could’ve done more, but we did nothing wrong.’” Pluta says Governor Snyder is “playing absolute defense…Even though there was a failure in Flint, [Snyder] doesn’t see the need to make any changes to the emergency manager law.”
Stephen Henderson also speaks with Peter Henning, Professor of Law at Wayne State University, who talks about the divide between Democrats and Republicans at the hearing, “one side blamed the EPA, the other side blamed the governor.” However, Henning believes the governor is more at fault because, “if you look at the history, drinking water was always a local issue and a local concern…water has been, very much, a local government issue.”
Click the audio link above to hear the entire conversation.
