Democrats investigating the water contamination in Flint, Mich., on Monday accused the House GOP of trying to shield Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants panel Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to compel Snyder to turn over all documents related to the decisions that resulted in lead poisoning of the Flint water system.
Cummings said Snyder has ignored the Democrats’ request for the information. Chaffetz, Cummings wrote in the letter, may be using a different standard for Snyder because he is a Republican governor and not a Democrat.
Cummings noted the “sweeping documents request” sent to Oregon’s Democratic governor as part of the oversight panel’s investigation into the state’s failed healthcare exchange.
“I believe the committee should apply the same standards for requesting documents to all governors, regardless of whether they are Democrats or Republicans,” Cummings wrote to Chaffetz.
“By declining to send any document request at all to Gov. Snyder, the committee is creating the perception of a double standard in which it has requested documents from a Democratic governor and not from a Republican governor.”
Chaffetz, according to Cummings, talked to Snyder by phone and said that the governor’s communications about the Flint water crisis could be protected by executive privilege.
Chaffetz has summoned Snyder to an oversight hearing in March.
“We look forward to hearing from the governor in March,” M.J. Henshaw, the GOP’s spokesperson on the oversight committee, told the Washington Examiner.
