White House Dodges on Whether EPA Involved in Clearing Flint, Mich., Water Supply

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
UNKNOWN REPORTER: "You said that the federal government has done a lot, but the mayor and the governor are asking for a significant amount of more money than the $5 million through the emergency declaration, which will be about $100 million. It is not even close to what they say they need."
EARNEST: "Just to be clear about what the law will allow, a disaster declaration is something that FEMA offers routinely to state and local governments who have sustained international catastrophe or a fire, flood, or explosion. None of those events have occurred in Flint. By statute, it is going to be difficult to grant that request for a major disaster declaration. There is an opportunity for the governor to appeal that ruling and that will be up to him to decide whether or not they would do that. It is a regular process for considering those kinds of appeals. What we have however done is granted their request for an emergency declaration that will allow us to provide some resources as they were to recover from that situation. There are resources that can be mobilized by the department housing of urban development, EPA, to assist the state and the city."
UNKNOWN REPORTER: "Knowing this gap, it's not like what the insurance company says to someone claiming there is a flood in their basement, is the administration proactively trying to marshal more resources because you are well aware there are $90 million gaps between what they are saying? Is there a proactive process going on to fill that gap?”
EARNEST: “This is a situation we take seriously. The U.S. Government has an obligation to our taxpayers to ensure that funds are being spent consistently with the statute and with the law. As it relates to what we can mobilize to support them, there is a lot of expertise and resources that we can make available through existing programs. Let me give you a couple of examples. The USDA has waived requirements on political tap water availability at school meal services, instead of allowing schools to provide bottled water. The wick program is allowing participants with vouchers with ready to feed its informal which will not be mixed with water and allowing participants to swap the powdered formula that does require water for their ready to feed formula. It is one example of how a federal program can be leveraged to try to meet the needs of the people in Flint.”
UNKNOWN REPORTER: “The critical issue seems to be with the system that was switched to the river system. Is that something that EPA would have had to sign off on? What exactly -- is the administration satisfied with everything the EPA has been doing?" 
EARNEST: "I do not want to get into sort of dissecting the entire relationship between the state of Michigan and the EPA. Primarily because this is a subject of ongoing investigation by the department of justice. There is surely a role for the EPA to play to assist in the response effort. There is expertise the EPA can bring in terms of testing the water in the system, conducting an audit of the system to determine which parts of it is safe and what can be done to make the system more safe. Obviously, this scientific expertise can be valuable as it response to the situation in Michigan."
UNKNOWN REPORTER: "What about the process? Was there and EPA final sign off?"
EARNEST: “You can check with EPA and maybe they will tell you about their system for working with state officials and these kinds of matters.”