Press Releases

Congresswomen Gwen Moore Applauds Biden-Harris Administration Continuing Work to Address Lead as a Public Health Hazard

Today, President Biden visited Milwaukee touting $2.6 billion in bipartisan infrastructure law (BIL) funds to address water infrastructure needs, including the removal of lead pipes.  This year alone, Milwaukee received $30 million in federal funds to replace 3,400 lead service lines. During his visit, President Biden announced an Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) update to the Lead and Copper rule which would call for affected entities to replace all lead pipes in 10 years.  In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced more than $416 million in grants to protect children from lead exposure through paint and other home hazards, including $7.5 million for Milwaukee County to address lead and other hazards in 142 housing units. In response, she released the following statement:

“Every child should have access to clean drinking water and a safe lead-free home in which to grow and thrive.  Unfortunately for too many children in Milwaukee and elsewhere nationwide, that is not the case and too many remain exposed to lead which can lead to lifelong adverse impacts.

I thank the Administration for its focus since Day One on the threat lead poses to our children, including fighting to secure the first pool of funding to address lead pipes in the BIL. President Biden helped make sure that funding for state and local governments in the American Rescue Plan Act could explicitly be used for lead pipe replacement. At its current pace, it would take the city of Milwaukee an estimated 70 years to remove every lead pipe. With additional federal resources, we can accelerate these efforts.

I also applaud the Biden-Harris administration’s new Lead and Copper rule, which calls for municipalities to identify and remove every lead pipe in the next decade, a request that my Congressional colleagues and I have been pushing for. This rule includes stricter standards which will help keep babies and young children from experiencing the harmful effects of lead exposure on their health and neurological development. No baby should experience inequities before they have a chance to grow. This rule will make important federal interventions for the future of some of our most vulnerable children.

I also remain focused on removing all sources of lead from our communities, including lead paint, the primary source of lead exposure for many children. That’s why I have and continue to advocate for additional funding for HUD’s Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes program, which supports efforts to remove and remediate lead paint. I am so pleased that HUD is devoting hundreds of millions of dollars toward addressing lead paint exposure. These resources will especially help low-income and communities of color in cities like Milwaukee that have older housing stock, who face a high risk of exposure and who often lack the means to address this hazard on their own.

I have long made addressing the lead crisis a priority, and I thank the Biden-Harris for sharing the same urgency. All our children should have the chance the reach their full potential. And today’s announcements help get us closer to the day that we all dream about—where lead pipes will truly be a relic of the past rather than a public health threat to our children.”