WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)-- A Democratic lawmaker from Flint, Michigan, says House Republican leaders are refusing to approve emergency aid for the city's water crisis because a majority of Flint
residents are African-Americans.
Rep. Dan Kildee said Tuesday that GOP leaders "don't see American citizens" when they look at people in Flint, where drinking water is contaminated with lead.
Kildee, who is white, said "there's something about this ... poor, majority-minority community that exempts them from the kind of help that we have provided time and again to people in crisis in this country."
The Senate has approved $220 million help Flint and other cities with lead contamination, but GOP leaders have refused to include the aid in a House bill.
Republican Rep. Rob Woodall of Georgia said he was "incensed" by Kildee's comments.
