Rashida Tlaib: “Water contaminated by lead service lines can be found in every single congressional district in our country. From rural…”

“Water contaminated by lead service lines can be found in every single congressional district in our country. From rural areas to densely populated cities, lead service lines are widespread and pose serious health risks to all of us, but particularly our children. I founded the Get the Lead Out Caucus with the goal of eliminating lead from our drinking water once and for all. Experts have estimated that we need $60 billion to replace every single lead pipe in America in the next 10 years. We continue to wake up to stories about children being poisoned and cities having to hand out bottled water because they have failed to invest in our water infrastructure. We are now seeing our own food supply being impacted by toxic water being used to wash produce that ends up in our refrigerators and on our dining room tables. People across our country are being forced to drink, bathe, cook, and wash dishes with water that is literally poisoning our bodies. This is a public health crisis, Mr. Speaker, and it affects all of us in the United States. I am proud that I am leading, in partnership with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and Lisa Blunt Rochester, an appropriations request to provide $1.5 billion in additional funding for lead service line replacement in Michigan and throughout the country in the next fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to please join me in this initiative.…”