Congressman Dan Kildee tells Congress to Include Flint Aid in Spending Bill

Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) today spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to urge Congress to include funding for Flint in the upcoming continuing resolution. A video of Congressman Kildee’s speech can be viewed here. A transcript of his remarks, as delivered, is below: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, in the next week or so, we will pass the spending bill to fund the government for the next 10 weeks and it is absolutely critical that we include in that legislation funding to help my hometown of Flint recover from the terrible water crisis that it's facing that should be included in the continuing resolution. “A city of 100,000 people, for two years, can't drink their water, still dealing with the effect of lead poisoning. Hearings have been held in Congress, multiple committees, lots of sympathy, members asking me, ‘what can I do?’ Well, it's real simple. The Senate passed legislation that would provide relief for the people of Flint, 95-3 bipartisan legislation, paid for. Let me emphasize, paid for. We have an offset. “Yet, House negotiators on the continuing resolution continue to take the position that we will consider relief for all sorts of issues, we will get a spending bill, but nothing for Flint. Take yes for an answer. When you ask us to come up with an offset, to deal with this terrible public health crisis, we came up with an offset. “So to my colleagues, my God, at long last, do the right thing. Help this community that is struggling. We have come up with a way to get it done. There's no excuse for not getting it done. It has to happen now.”

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