House Republicans shut down investigation into Flint water crisis, blame EPA instead
by Sophia Tesfaye at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/house-republicans-shut-down-investigation-into-flint-water-crisis-blame-epa-instead/
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As President Barack Obama signed a bill on Friday authorizing $170 million to address the problem of the lead being found in drinking water in Flint, Michigan, Republicans in the House quietly closed a nearly yearlong investigation of the disaster without receiving crucial information from Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
Late on Friday afternoon Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a pair of letters announcing the end of his investigation. His letters offered no new information and essentially summarized what had already revealed about the crisis during several high-profile hearings earlier this year.
Over a year ago Flints mayor, Karen Weaver, declared a state of emergency because of her citys supply of poisonous water and still it remains undrinkable. Flints water woes date from April 2014, when a state-appointed emergency manager switched the citys water source from Detroits water system to the Flint River in order to save money.
But on Friday just hours after the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Marylands Rep. Elijah Cummings, called for a subpoena of the Republican governor of Michigan responsible for appointing the emergency manager who had switched Flints water supply, Chaffetz announced he was ending the congressional investigation. Chaffetz said he had concluded that a series of failures at all levels of government caused, and then exacerbated, the water crisis.
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