Michigan governor, AG send Flint water crisis documents to congressional committee

As the beleaguered city tries to recover from a yearslong ordeal of tainted water, Michigan's newly elected politicians are seeking to correct mistakes of the prior administration

Dawn Onley

Mar 20, 2019

The Flint River flows in downtown January 17, 2016 in Flint, Mich. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Michigan’s new governor Gretchen Whitmer is turning over long-requested documents to a congressional oversight committee headed up by U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings regarding the Flint water crisis – documents that former governor Rick Snyder reportedly failed to release.

“We are cooperating with, and actively filling, the committee’s request. We’ve sent some documents and are diligently working to send the rest,” Dan Olsen, spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, said in an email to The Flint Journal.

Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and chairman for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, requested records from Snyder last year.

According to The Journal, Cummings continues to question whether Snyder was honest when he testified before the committee in March 2016. Cummings also said it is dubious whether the state complied with the committee’s requests for information, including providing documents on the drinking water supply in Flint, public discord over water quality and what steps the state took to warn residents of contaminants in their water.

For his part, Snyder said his administration turned over the documents that Cummings and the committee requested.

Whitmer is now ensuring that the requested documents are sent over. Tiffany Brown, press secretary for Whitmer, told The Journal that the governor and Nessel are “continuing to work cooperatively with the committee to produce requested documents.”

In a December letter, shortly after taking over as head of the Oversight Committee, Cummings informed Snyder that he would be further investigating what state officials knew about the flint water contamination and when they alerted residents. Congressional Republicans ended their investigation into the Flint water crisis in December 2016.

Snyder has apologized for the water crisis and has obtained millions of dollars toward water and infrastructure upgrades while still in office. However, the former governor denies any culpability in the matter.