Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I wish to talk about an issue my colleague Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and I have been working on for 2 months. It is an issue that is sad and has been absolutely catastrophic for people who live in our State, in the city of Flint.

In fact, today we had hundreds of folks from Flint come to Washington, DC, to attend a House hearing that was held to talk about what had happened in Flint and to get answers from the EPA Administrator, as well as the Governor of Michigan. The folks came to make sure their voices were heard in this tragedy, to make sure people would see them as human beings who are being afflicted by this horrible tragedy. They are in a situation where they can't turn on their tapwater and have clean water, water free from lead.

I think many folks are aware of what happened. We had a situation where an unelected emergency manager was appointed by the Governor to save dollars, to save money, and in the process contaminated a water system.

The decision was made to move away from clean Detroit water from the Detroit water system--water that comes from Lake Huron in the Great Lakes--and move on a temporary basis until a new system could be put up and running that drew water from the Flint River. The Flint River was known to be water that was very corrosive. In fact, General Motors had an engine plant along the Flint River and used Flint River water in their manufacturing process but found that the water was so corrosive that it was damaging engine blocks. So they stopped using this water because of the damage it was doing to the manufacturing process, but, unfortunately, the unelected emergency manager and the State government decided to use that water for the people of Flint as a source of drinking water, and they did not put in the proper corrosion control chemicals that may have mitigated this disaster. As a result, this highly corrosive water was going through the pipes, damaging the pipes, and released very large amounts of lead that has led to the contamination of an entire water system.

This should have never happened. This is a disaster that was clearly manmade. It was a result of negligence on the part of those folks who were given the trust to run the system properly. Now we are left with an absolute catastrophe in the city.

Although every resident is hurt, there is no question that it is primarily the children of Flint who have been impacted as a result. That is what is so insidious about lead poisoning. Even though it will eventually be flushed out of your body, if you are ingesting this when you are young while your brain is still developing, it can have permanent brain damage. That damage can be mitigated, but it is going to require the use of wraparound education services. It is going to make sure those children have proper nutrition and make sure they have health coverage, but certainly this is every resident in Flint, not just children but also the elderly and everybody who is a resident of that city.

What has been so frustrating about this effort is that certainly we know this is the State's responsibility. The State broke it. They need to fix it. The State needs to put substantial resources in place. The Governor was here today talking about some of those efforts. He needs to do a whole lot more. Everybody agrees the State has to do a whole lot more, and taking responsibility means making sure the resources are there to provide the services that are going to be necessary--not just now but for what will likely be many decades in the future.

What I am concerned about, what the residents of the city of Flint are concerned about, is that although right now this issue has received national attention and the eyes of the country are focused on Flint, they know that sooner or later the TV cameras will go, that the lights will not be shining on Flint, and people may forget what happened in Flint. However, the people of Flint will be left dealing with this problem for decades to come. We cannot let that happen. These people cannot be forgotten. Certainly Senator Stabenow and I have been working aggressively to hopefully force the Governor to create a future fund that will provide resources for years to come for the people who have been impacted by this horrible crisis.

Even though this is a State responsibility and the State needs to step up and do more, there is also a role for the Federal Government. Wherever there has been a disaster anywhere in the country, the Federal Government has stepped up and helped those folks who have been the victims of disaster. Some argue this is a manmade disaster, the Federal Government shouldn't be involved in it, and we only deal with natural disasters, but I would just say ask the people of Flint: Does it matter who actually caused this problem? Can we be there to help folks? They don't care. They don't really care where it came from. They just know their children have been poisoned. They have ingested lead. They know they can't use the water. Even now, although they have filters, a lot of them can't use the water. They are living on bottled water.

Today I had a woman named Gladys who came up to me. She traveled to Washington to tell her story. She brought a bag with hair in it. She is losing her hair as a result of using some of this water. She can't use her home. She was in tears as she talked about the lost value of her home, her entire life's savings in this house. Now she doesn't know what that house is worth because she is not sure whether the water is safe to drink.

Folks in Flint don't care who caused this problem, they just need help. In the past, the Federal Government and this body, the Senate, have always stepped up to help those in need. That is the right thing to do. That is what the American people expect us to do. The American people look to make sure that they are always in a position to help those in need. It is our values. It is who we are as a country. It is who we are as a people. Yet it has been extremely difficult to get that help out of this body.

I am pleased to say that in the last 2 months we have made some progress. Senator Murkowski of Alaska and Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma have been great in working with Senator Stabenow and me. We have been able to build a list of cosponsors who are also helping us in this effort: Senator Burr, Senator Capito, Senator Kirk, and Senator Portman. A number of Senators have come together on both sides of the aisle to say: Here is a solution we can get behind.

The proposal Senator Stabenow and I have worked on will provide money through the Safe Drinking Water Fund. It will provide grants for any community that has an emergency. Any community, not just Flint, that finds itself in an emergency of this kind could reaccess these resources. Although Flint is the only community right now that would qualify, we believe there are other communities that will likely qualify in the future. In fact, there may be some in a relatively short period of time.

It also creates a loan fund of potentially up to $700 million-- perhaps even more--that every single community can access. This is an issue every community in our country may potentially face. With aging infrastructure, we know there are incredible infrastructure needs that have to be met, and the legislation we have worked on helps every community of every single State deal with this very important issue.

It also addresses some of the health issues I mentioned earlier in my talk--issues that help the children and the residents who have been poisoned by lead--by plussing up public health programs for lead abatement and helping the CDC do its great work to help folks.

This is a commonsense proposal that addresses some of the pressing needs in the city of Flint, while also addressing some of the pressing needs we face as a country to make sure we are investing in water infrastructure so that a citizen, no matter where they live or who they are, can turn on their tap and have clean drinking water come out of it.

We have also worked hard to address some of the concerns we heard from the other side of the aisle, in addition to the fact that this is open to all communities, not just Flint. We also heard that folks wanted it paid for, and certainly Senator Stabenow and I believe that as well. So we are fiscally responsible. We found a pay-for in a program that deals with vehicle technology but one we thought was important to use to help the people of Flint and help water infrastructure projects across the country.

The important thing about this, in addition to dealing with the problem and in addition to its being completely paid for, is that it also reduces the deficit. It will actually generate more money than is necessary to pay for this bill and will reduce the deficit.

In the past, when we have had a national disaster such as the one we have seen in Flint, normally we see emergency funds being used, as we have done with bridge collapses and oil refinery fires and water main breaks. Even though that is probably the best source to fund this--if you treat the people of Flint like we treat other folks all around the country, we would use emergency funds--we went the extra distance to take a fund and make sure it would completely pay for this program, while at the same time reducing the deficit.

We have done backflips and have worked with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and have built support, and I believe if this bill went to the floor, it would pass. I think it would pass by a good margin. We believe we have very strong support for it. Yet here we are today, about ready to break for 2 weeks, and we are going to break without addressing this issue that has such strong bipartisan support. This has been a work in progress for over 2 months. It is ready to be voted on, yet we are going to leave without that vote.

We are going to leave because there is basically one Senator out there who doesn't want to see it move forward--one Senator who doesn't really like this proposal. I am not going to speak for that individual, but they have their issues and they continually want more and more. The folks who are suffering right now are the people of Flint. I wish that one Senator who has the hold would have met with the people I met with this morning and that Senator Stabenow and some of our other colleagues met with this morning. I wish that Senator would have heard their stories, heard their anguish, and saw the tears in their eyes as they talked about what they are dealing with. Yet this Senator continues to have a hold.

Now, I understand the Senator may have a problem with a particular piece of legislation. That happens. We are not going to agree on everything. I would just ask that we allow this legislation to come to the floor and the one Senator who has the hold--if he doesn't like the legislation, that is fine--can vote no if he likes. That is certainly his prerogative as an elected Member of this body--to vote no. But please let the other 99 Senators in this body have a say. That is all we are asking for. Put it on the floor and let this body make the final decision as to whether or not this is an appropriate response to an absolutely catastrophic disaster that has hit a community in this country of ours. I don't think that is asking a lot.

Now, I am a new Member here. I am new, but I cannot imagine that folks here in the Senate will not allow legislation that is so important for people who have been impacted in such an extreme way to come to the Senate Floor. What would our Founding Fathers think if they were to look upon the Senate? They were concerned about factions and political parties and a body that would be paralyzed to really work on the tough issues that our country was going to face. I can't imagine looking in the eyes of our Founders and saying: The Senate--the deliberative body, the body that is supposed to take up the really tough issues facing us as a country--refuses to act and refuses to even put it on the floor so it can be debated and voted upon.

So I will close and pass this on to my colleague, the senior Senator from Michigan, Ms. Stabenow, and let her continue. I am certainly disappointed, and I would ask all of my colleagues to please join with us to work to get this to the floor so we can have a vote. The people of Flint cannot wait any longer. The rest of the country is looking at the Senate and they are shaking their heads wondering why the Senate is incapable of putting this issue on the floor and having a simple up-or- down vote.

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