Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will testify in front of Congress about his knowledge of the Flint water crisis. This comes after Snyder requested an opportunity to testify on Friday.
According to spokesman Dave Murray, Snyder called Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, and offered to travel to Washington D.C. for any future hearing.
In that hearing, Snyder would "explain mistakes made by water quality experts that led to the current crisis and detail the emergency response in place to help residents recover," according to his office.
According to the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, those testifying include Snyder, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, former Mayor Dayne Walling, former Region 5 Administrator for the EPA Susan Hedman, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, EPA Region 5 Water Expert Miguel Del Toral and Marc Edwards, a professor of environmental and water engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University.
“We are committed to investigating the failures in Flint. We appreciate Governor Snyder’s willingness to appear before the Committee and look forward to hearing from EPA Administrator McCarthy as well," Chaffetz said. "Their perspectives on this issue are important as we seek to ensure a crisis of this magnitude never occurs in another American city. The diverse and insightful panel of witnesses assembled will shed light on many of our remaining questions and help us propose reforms to the authorizing committees.”
Snyder was not invited to testify in the first Flint water hearing on Feb. 3 in front of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was invited to testify in front of members of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
“The people of Flint have suffered because they were failed by all levels of government, and so it is understandable that there are questions at all levels of government,” Snyder said in a release. “In Michigan we are learning a great deal from this crisis and I am hopeful the federal government also will use this as an opportunity to examine health and safety protections in place, assess infrastructure needs, and avoid this type of crisis in the future.”
7 Action News has learned Earley will be deposed by Congress on Feb. 25 in Washington. Sources tell 7 Action News Gov. Snyder could testify on either March 15 or March 23.
