There will be one key piece missing from the critical February 3 House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the Flint water crisis: testimony from Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. That omission has led U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) to question the hearing’s meaningfulness. MLive reports:
U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Southfield) said Wednesday that a congressional hearing she requested on the Flint water crisis has been scheduled for Feb. 3, but that it won't include testimony from Gov. Rick Snyder.
Lawrence said Snyder was at the top of a list of witnesses she wanted to question in the hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
But when she received notice Wednesday of the hearing being scheduled, it was clear that Snyder would not be called to testify, Lawrence said.
"I am deeply disappointed at the Majority's lack of commitment to a thorough and meaningful hearing," said Lawrence, ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Interior, in a statement.
What kind of useful hearing can come about without testimony from the person who himself has taken personal responsibility for the crisis? Politics stand in the way of truth-seeking, and this hearing will be ineffectual, perhaps for the same reason why the responses from GOP presidential candidates about Flint have been so tepid: Republicans don’t want to throw one of their own under the bus.
But the people of Flint deserve vigorous investigation and assistance regardless of party or politics. And that means taking to task and holding accountable all government actors who could have stopped them from being exposed to lead. For now, that certainly includes Snyder and his office.