Kamala Harris due in Milwaukee to tout bipartisan infrastructure law and push to replace lead pipes - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Vice President Kamala Harris is due in Milwaukee Monday to promote the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law and focus on the push to replace lead pipes in Milwaukee and across the country.
Harris is scheduled to visit the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership/ BIG STEP program on the city's near west side, where she'll meet with community and health leaders as well as union workers.
She'll be joined by Michael Regan, the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, and two top Wisconsin Democrats, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
In December, Harris heralded the Biden administration's ambitious plan to remove lead pipes and lead paint in the next decade.
"The challenge that we face is, without any question, great. Lead is built into our cities, it is laid under our roads, and it is installed in our homes," Harris said during a speech to the AFL-CIO, touting the Biden-Harris Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan.
She added that "there is no reason in the 21st century for why people are still exposed to this substance that was poisoning people back in the 18th century."
The infrastructure law includes $15 billion to remove and replace lead service lines across the country. To ignite the effort, the EPA announced plans to send $3 billion to the states this year, including $48 million for Wisconsin.
That $48 million is part of a $142.7 million package is expected to receive in the coming weeks for water projects made available through EPA loan programs.
The scale of the lead problem is immense. In just Milwaukee alone, current estimates put the cost of replacing all the lead service lines on both public and private property at nearly $800 million.
Harris has discussed infrastructure projects across the country, with stops in California, North Carolina, Ohio, New Hampshire and Nevada.
In May, Harris toured clean energy laboratories on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus.
She said then that the replacement of the nation's lead pipes and service lines would reduce the risk of lead poisoning and require "good-paying, union jobs" to do the work.
source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/24/kamala-harris-due-milwaukee-tout-bipartisan-infrastructure-law/6631021001/
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