congressional democrats see an opportunity here in what's a really tough political year. you have the midterm political elections ahead in november. so they're trying to certainly push this as well. the long-term unemployment benefits and this is also going to be a push a little later for the minimum wage as well, wolf. >> doug, go ahead and react to this. >> well, you know, the extension of emergency unemployment benefits is desirable but i don't think solves the fundamental problem and that's all there is to it. the minimum wage doesn't solve any problems either. it doesn't really address poverty and doesn't really help job creation. the difference between people who are poor and not poor is work. the poverty rate among those not working is three times higher. we need to get people into jobs and there's nothing about the minimum wage that does that. >> i have to jump in on this that because we're living in a time when the corporate share of the overall economic pie is as high as it has been in decades. meanwhile, the median male worker in this country has not

seen a raise inflation ajusted since -- for 30 years, basically. so i think this is not just about working or not working. there's some real, large, entrenched structural problems that we need to address. >> they certainly do. we'll continue this conversation. doug, i mean, austan, make a final point because we've got to run. >> my only final point is i think the impact on what's happening in the minds of the fed who just last month after the good report said, hey, let's go ahead and start the tightening, i think that's more important than the impact on the legislation. >> you mean if they continue the stimulus to keep pumping money into the economy? >> right. >> yes. >> right. >> all right, guys. all good points. thanks very much. obviously, lots at stake in this story as well. coming up, hundreds of thousands of people of west virginia now plagued by contaminated water.

the governor of west virginia standing by live. i'll speak with him. that's coming up. and should west virginians be concerned about their actual health? an environmental lawyer whose story was the inspiration for a major film starring john travolta standing by to weigh in. she keeps you on your toes.

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standing by to join us live in just a minute. but let's get in background first from our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen who is in charleston, west virginia, right now at that chemical plant. have you heard from a spokesman from the chemical factory over there, that plant, that's believed to be responsible for this problem that's going on right now. but update our viewers ones what is going on. >> what's going on is that facility has been told to cease and desist all of their activities. the state of west virginia said just stop. they want to make sure that nothing else gets leaked. the elk river, a water source for hundreds of thousands of people in west virginia, and now contaminated with a chemical used to clean coal. >> the only appropriate use is toilet flushing. don't wash with it, don't shower with it. don't drink it. you can't just boil it. so it's not a boil water advisory. it's a do not use advisory.

>> reporter: the chemical leaked out of fats belonging to freedom industries. customers noticed because it smelled strongly of black licorice. the chemical safety data sheet says warning, harmful if swallowed, causes skin and eye irritation. but west virginians were exposed to the chemical at very diluted levels, levels that have been going down. >> we don't know that the water's not safe, but i can't say it is safe. >> reporter: health officials say some 4 to 6 people were admitted to the hospital with problems related to the contamination, minor problems such as nausea and vomiting. friday the west virginia department of environmental protection issued a cease order to freedom industries telling them to stop all operations. the company issued a statement saying, our team has been working around the clock since the discovery to contain the leak to prevent further contaminati contamination. in the meantime, supplies of bottled water are running low and hundreds of thousands of west virginians just want to be

able to use their taps again. >> it could be days. we're working to keep it very short. i don't think we're talking weeks. >> reporter: the economic impact has been real. restaurants and many hotels have closed and patients have suffered, too. several hospitals have canceled elective surgeries until the water crisis is over. now, this facility did have a system in place to handle the leak. there was a concrete wall that was supposed to contain any chemicals that might leak out, but that concrete wall, we are told, was breached. wolf? >> elizabeth cohen, thanks very much. clearly this is a major crisis right now affecting 300,000 americans. they can't use water, they can't use water for anything than flush their toilets. but that's basically about that. this is an enormous crisis in west virginia right now. a lot of people have to leave these areas because there's no

water, no bottled water that's left either. let's talk about what's going on with the west virginia governor earl tomlin. thanks very much for joining us. i know that you're over ta water treatment plant behind you. how bad is this situation? >> well, it's pretty bad. as you mentioned we do have way over 100,000 -- we don't have the exact number yet -- of people who are without water. obviously all the restaurants are closed down, the hotels are having to close down. schools were out yesterday. it's just a real inconvenience for the people not being able to use their water with the exception of flushing toilets. so we're working to put all the state resources we have together. we're doing water tests on an hourly basis and the chemical level is declining, but we're just not sure exactly how long it's going to take until it's acceptable to lift the do not drink ban that the west virginia american water company has

placed on us. >> what happened in this chemical plant, this company freedom industries was operating. what happened to cause this nightmare? >> well, i'm not sure whether it was just lack of maintenance of the storage tank. there was several thousand gallons of this chemical in the plant. it's estimated that probably at the maximum about 5,000 gallons had leaked out in the tank, as i understand, is very near the elk river and then obviously after it breached the wall it got into the river and then obviously was sucked into the water plant here. our department of environmental protection was on the scene yesterday morning when they started getting complaints of the smell of chock -- or black licorice in the air. they traced it down to this particular chemical company. and that's when they -- told them they had to cease and desist right there and then they

had to put a new retaining wall around in case rain will come or the chemical cannot get back into the river. the old tank has been emptied and taken away and as of right now, the company has closed down. >> we understand the federal government is coming to aid, some fema trucks from the federal emergency management agency. i take it they'll be coming later tonight around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. your time. what do you want the federal government, governor, to do? >> well, let me say that i am pleased that the president did sign the emergency declaration yesterday after i requested it, and we are receiving fema assistance. most of it right now is in the form of several truck loads of water. i understand that the water should have been here before, but in traveling here got caught in some bad weather and so slowed it down. however, for several private businesses, both instate and out

of state has shipped just truckload after truckload of water. that's the big need right now. obviously, as we go on, we're going to start maybe needing wipes and hand sanitizer, baby formula and that sort of thing. as of right now i think everyone has enough food, but if anyone wants to make those donations, we're accepting those now. water has been the big thing. we learned from the derecho we had a year ago and hurricane sandy last october, we needed to be prepared. we've been able to handle the emergency much better than we could have before. so we just appreciate all the help of the donations that so system kind people from around the country are sending us with the trucks of water. >> tell us about freedom industries, governor, this plant, this company that operates this plant that had this disaster that caused this -- does it have a good track record? is it a subsidiary of another

company? what do we know about it? >> you know, i know very little about it, and i personally have not had any contact with the management of that company. i know that when dep rolled in yesterday morning, they had to convince them that they needed to get in to take care of this problem. so you know, we're still investigating to see what's going on with the company. i do not know of any previous spill or anything like that, but that doesn't mean that that hasn't happened. >> well, good luck to all the folks in west virginia. we're hoping this is resolved quickly, governor, i'm sure no one hopes it's resolved more quickly than you do. appreciate you joining us. good luck. >> well, thank you very much, wolf, we appreciate your concern for us, thank you. >> yeah, a lot of people are watching right now and i'm sure they're going to want to try to help as best as they can and governor tomblin of west

virginia. the contamination in that state is not the first time a corporation has been accused of poisoning a local water supply. back in the 1980s, the environmental lawyer jan schlichtmann took an industrial chemical company that was polluting a massachusetts town to task and won. the basis of that 1998 film "a civil action" starring john travolta who played schlichtmann. jan schlichtmann is joining us right now. what do you make of this current situation, jan? >> well, i think it's the community in kanawha valley are learning the lessons that the wo burn families did. we have to know where our water is coming from and we can't leave it to the authorities. we have to work in partnership with them to protect the threats to our water supply. here's a water supply that was just one mile down river from a chemical storage plant that obviously has a long history here of some neglect that could have caused this thing. so it's a wake-up call to them and to all of us how prejudiced

our water supply is and we must know our source and we must work with government officials to make sure it's protected. >> i hear you saying there's got to be more regulation of these plants, these sensitive areas so that water plants are not disrupted and poisoned, if you will. >> yes, the public has to understand that every time we talk about cutting government, these are the kinds of programs are the first ones that get cut. they're not on the radar screen of the budget and the bean counters and the problem is that the citizens of these communities have to understand, they have to work in partnership to understand that there is enough infrastructure, there is the monitoring and they themselves, the communities, can form associations and ensure the fact that their water -- identify the threats and make sure that these threats are watched and monitored so they don't wake up one morning like this community did to find that the water that they thought was safe isn't and they can't use. >> what would you ask the

leaders of freedom industries, the owners of this plant where this poisonous spill occurred, what would you ask them if you had an opportunity? >> well, i mean, i think the most obvious thing is that clearly this leak had to be long duration because it had to fill the whole containment area. there obviously were no alarms or anything or if there were nobody was listening to them. then it overflowed the contaminate area and contaminated ground before it got to the river and it was a chemical storage facility. good thing that state officials closed it down. there should be a complete audit of that entire facility because obviously if there's a problem in one tank, there could be a problem in others. we don't know all the other kind of chemicals stored there one mile up river from such a sensitive water supply. >> jan schlichtmann, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> up next, now that chris christie is on the ropes to speak at least politically, democrats are closing in.

they're accusing the governor of what they are describing as his, quote, reign of terror. i lost my job about, probably about six or seven months ago. i'm a year short of qualifying for my retirement. they had some cutbacks. i was the most skilled technician and also the highest paid. for my unemployment to end now, i wouldn't have money to go on an interview. my retirement is going away as a result of this. i do have a husband, thank god, or i would be homeless.

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reputation for some strong arm politics. the democratic national committee has released the web video accusing them of creating what they describe as a malicious culture. chris is on the ground for us in trenton, new jersey. chris, what are you hearing from your sources in governor christi's own backyard? >> well, most democrats hearsay that the george washington bridge scandal has given the nation the ability to see a chris christie they say they've known for years, a bully who uses hardball politics to punish his critics. we spoke to richard coty who says he believes his governorship is becoming a rein of terror. he told us what happened when he

crossed chris christie. >> it was a monday and he -- i guess he was upset about something i said about his policies so anybody leftover in state government who didn't have civil service protection that he felt was aligned with me were let go. anybody on a commission or a board who were holdovers were replaced and a cousin of mine who worked at the port authority who was appointed by a former governor who didn't have civil service protection was let go all in one day and he told somebody he was sending a message. i got the message. >> reporter: and, wolf, governor coty said he lost the police protection that he got that was provided to former governors. >> he's a democrat. you've been hearing from people

on both sides of the aisle, right? >> reporter: well, that's right, wolf. what i'm hearing from democrats are they're the only ones talking publicly and complaining publicly about this. republicans, however, will tell you privately that they've gotten similar treatment from gov noor chris christie. what you have to remember here in new jersey is that it's a strong governor state. that means that governor christie has more power than governors across the nation. neither republicans nor democrats for that matter want to cross a guy who got elected to four more years in office. >> chris franks on the scene for us in trenton, new jersey. thank you. just ahead, a tale of two americas. congress, wealthier than ever as they reach a millionaire milestone. your eyes really are unique.

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congress may have a hard time figuring out the country's budget right now, but apparently they have no problem with their own. a new study finds that for the first time in history more than half the members of the united states congress are millionaires. cnn's tom foreman is breaking down the numbers. >> and no american need be left out. >> affordable housing to the american people. >> democrats are standing for the middle class families. >> middle class americans. >> reporter: despite all the talk about economic hard times from lawmakers, the centers for responsive politics has found the median net worth for a congress member is now at $1,008,767 meaning for the first time over 50% are millionaires. that's a lot because when you think about the rest of the

population only 3% of us can call ourselves millionaires. look who has all the money in congress. leading the list is darrell issa with a net worst of $464 million. you can go to virginia to find the top democrat, mark warner, $257 million. another democrat, jared pollis from colorado, $197 million. this is based upon their income for 2012 on their tax returns. congressional democrats overall are slightly richer than their republican colleagues and senators are much richer than members of the house. democrat harry reid is worth over $4 million. speaker of the house republican john boehner has about half a million less than that. still, they all get salaries a regular member of congress gets $174,000 a year from the taxpayers or about four times as much as an average american earns in the same period of time, and how do they invest all their wealth? center for responsive politics

found that some of the top stock picks include general electric, wells fargo and microsoft just to name a few. as a general principle they like investing in real estate, in big oil, in securities, in big banks. in fact, investing in many of the businesses that they're so often called on to investigate and regulate for the rest of us. wolf. >> tom foreman, thanks. that's it for me. thanks for watching. "earn burnett "out front" starts right now. next, breaking news. poison water. >> do not drink it. do not cook with it. do not wash clothes in it. do not take a bath in it. >> hundreds of thousands of americans warned not to drink their water. the situation getting more dire by the hour. plus, new developments in the chris christie bridge scandal. a huge paper trail. more than 2,000 pages of documents released today, but is there a smoking gun? and the