Congressman Dan Kildee: State of Michigan is Silencing the City of Flint

Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) today spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about the state of Michigan’s recent action to prevent Flint residents from suing the state following the Flint water crisis. While no longer under a state-appointed emergency financial manager, the city of Flint is still partially run by a five-member Receivership Transition Advisory Board, whose members are appointed by Governor Rick Snyder. The board recently ruled that the city cannot file a lawsuit against the state without first getting approval from the board itself, which effectively prevents the city of Flint from pursuing legal action in regards to the Flint water crisis. A video of Congressman Kildee’s speech can be viewed here. A transcript of his remarks, as delivered is below: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday it was reported that instead of doing what is necessary to fix the Flint water crisis, state of Michigan officials are instead focused on disenfranchising the people of my hometown. “Through a slight of hand and bureaucratic maneuvers, they are effectively preventing the people of Flint from suing the State Government for the harm that has been caused by the State Government in my hometown. “Just as when the State installed emergency managers to take over the city of Flint, they are now using obscure legal wrangling to silence the voices of the people in my community and the people that they elected from representing them in a court of law, from going to court to seek justice, to seek solutions. “So instead of fixing the problem, not only have they denied the people in Flint the resources necessary to solve the problem they created, but they are denying the very same people access to the judicial process to seek redress. This is outrageous, it’s wrong, and with that, Mr. Speaker I yield back.”

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