The Senate Minority Leader said that Republicans’ attempts to scuttle regulations protecting water systems around the nation is “unconscionable” given the current state of affairs in Michigan.
Harry Reid (D-Nevada) made the remarks Thursday, just before the Republican-led body tried and failed to override a presidential veto of a Clean Water Rule repeal.
“While we’re doing this waste of time here in the senate today—Flint, Michigan is in a state of emergency,” he said ahead of the vote. Fifty-two senators ended up backing the nullification and 40 senators voted against it. The legislative branch needs a two-thirds majority in both houses of congress to reverse a rejection by the executive.
The presidential decree, finalized in May, authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to shield smaller bodies of water, like streams and wetlands, from pollutants.
It has yet to take effect due to a flurry of lawsuits filed against the EPA by business interest groups and Republican-led states. A federal judge in North Dakota agreed with critics and blocked implementation of the rule last August.
“Safe water is critical to the health of our communities,” Reid said. “One need not go no further than Flint, Michigan to find out in fact that is the case.”
The situation in Flint grabbed national attention on Jan. 5, when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) declared a state of emergency, finally admitting to what residents of the city had long suspected—that their drinking water was poisoned.
Extremely high levels of lead had contaminated the city’s water supply following a cost-cutting decision in April 2014. The Governor’s appointed financial manager in Flint switched the source of water from Lake Huron to the polluted Flint River. Gov. Snyder is currently facing calls to resign over the state’s delayed response to the crisis.
