This morning, all eyes were on Washington, D.C. as Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder testified in front of Congress.
Snyder and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy were grilled for hours by members of Congress over their knowledge of the Flint water crisis.
In a statement already prepared by the governor and his staff, Governor Snyder places blame on all levels of government.
"Let me be blunt. This was a failure of government at all levels. Local, state, and federal officials – we all failed the families of Flint," Snyder writes in a prepared statement that he's expected to deliver at the hearing today.
But, his statement is mainly focused on the failures of the MDEQ.
"From the day the City of Flint began using the Flint River as an interim water supply on April 25, 2014 – and repeatedly after that – the state Department of Environmental Quality assured us that Flint’s water was safe."
Snyder also claims he wasn't notified until it was too late, saying he didn't find out about the problem until October of last year.
In the same statement, Governor Snyder mentions that he took action as soon as he became aware of the issue and that during his investigation, he uncovered systemic failures at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
"We also began a thorough investigation of what went wrong. We have uncovered systemic failures at the Michigan DEQ. The fact is, bureaucrats created a culture that valued technical compliance over common sense – and the result was that lead was leaching into residents’ water."
Read the full testimony he is expected to read below:
