Gov. Snyder: "Looking forward to testifying" at congressional hearing

WASHINGTON, DC (WJBK) - From the people of Flint to the lawmakers of Michigan and across the country, everybody is looking to Governor Rick Snyder for answers in the Flint Water Crisis during his time in front of the congressional hearing in Washington.

Snyder won't be alone in DC. He'll be joined by a Flint mother, a congressman from Flint and his former opponent for governor who are all already in the nation's capital and expect Snyder to answer some hard questions about who knew what and when.

"This is some of our flint water - the poison," said Nakia Wares, while holding up a bottle of her tap water. "This is what me and my kids have been drinking for two years. I was pregnant with twins and I lost both of my twins due to this crisis."

Nakia Wares brought her tap water to DC along with her story. she said her children have tested high for lead and it's had an impact. first grader has been suspended most of the school year bc of behavioral issues.

"It's a real serious problem. They say that levels will drop within 30 days but damage has already been done," Nakia Wares said. "We should have zero levels of lead in our bodies - even one is scary to me"

The Flint mom and other residents traveled to the nation's capital to attend congressional hearings on the Flint water crisis.

Governor Snyder is being called before the committee to testify under oath on Thursday and his spokesman released this statement to FOX 2:

"The Governor has been preparing to answer all the questions the committee may have for him. He is looking forward to testifying for the opportunity it provides to apologize again to the people of Flint, explain to Congress what went wrong at all levels of government and provide further details on what he is doing to correct the problems at the state level."

Those further details is exactly what Michigan legislators want to know. Especially Representative Dan Kildee, who grew up in Flint and still lives there.

"The frustrating thing for me about the hearings is there is a lot of focus on who knew what and when, and I get that, but the focus first ought to be: how do we help the people of Flint," Kildee said. "He said during the State of the State he would fix it But what he hasn't said is how….what's the long term plan for Flint?"

Michigan politicans in Washington are working on helping Flint but say the state needs to do more.

"There's no question the state has the primary responsibility, the state needs to step up and provide money for infrastructure as quickly as possible and they need to create a future fund because this is a problem that's not just going to go away," Sen. Gary Peters said.

The state has approved $30 million to help pay for water bills but Kildee said the governor needs to say more about what he's doing to fix Flint.

The hearing gets underway at 9 a.m. and FOX 2 will stream it all live. Check FOX2detroit.com for the live stream.