Congress investigates Jackson water crisis and Mississippi's use of federal funds
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves faces questions from Congress about the Jackson water crisis and how the state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds.
JACKSON, Miss. — Two congressional committees want Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves to explain how the country’s poorest state is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds as its predominantly Black capital city struggles with crumbling water infrastructure.
Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sent the request in a letter to Reeves on Monday as part of an investigation by the Homeland Security and the Oversight and Reform committees into a safe drinking water crisis that at its height left thousands of Jackson residents without running water this summer.
The breakdown occurred after Jackson was pummeled by days of heavy rain and the city’s main water treatment plant failed. In the past, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, a Democrat, has argued that the city’s public water utility was poorly positioned to handle threats from climate change because Republican state leaders have provided little financial help for the aging system’s challenges. He has estimated that tackling the city’s water troubles, which stretch back decades, could cost billions of dollars.
Jackson, Mississippi residents facing high water bills amid crisisOct. 10, 202202:37Thompson, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee and whose district includes almost all of Jackson, has previously expressed concerns about whether enough federal aid allocated by the state is making its way to the city.
In an interview on Monday, he said that withholding the funds Jackson needs to ensure safe drinking water puts lives at risk.
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