The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing on the lead water crisis in Flint, Mich., top members announced Friday.
Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., announced their intention to hold a hearing on the situation sometime in March. An exact date and witness list have not been announced yet.
The committee has been investigating the crisis and staffers have held multiple meetings with Environmental Protection Agency drinking water officials about what’s taking place in Flint.
The hearing will build off those meetings to get a “comprehensive understanding of the short- and long-term implications” of what’s happening in Flint, according to a statement from the committee.
“The situation in Flint, Michigan, is unacceptable at all levels and we still have a lot to learn,” Upton and Pallone said in a joint statement. “Next month’s hearing seeks to build a better understanding of what we can do to ensure that a crisis of these proportions never happens again, as well as what needs to be done to address the public health and water infrastructure issues in Flint.”
The news comes on the heels of House Democrats inviting Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to testify at a hearing of the House Democrats’ Steering and Policy Committee next week. That hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Feb. 10.
The hearing in front of Upton and Pallone’s committee will be the second hearing on the Flint crisis in front of a full congressional committee. Officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the EPA, a Flint resident and a researcher from Virginia Tech testified in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Wednesday.
That committee is also investigating the governmental response to the lead water situation in the eastern Michigan town.
State officials have said Flint residents should not drink the water in the town due to the amount of lead that has leeched off pipes and into the water system.
