July 24, 2023

Duckworth Celebrates $58 Million in Federal Funding From Program She Championed To Help Get the Lead Out of Our Children’s Schools

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—author of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA) included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—issued the following statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $58 million in grant funding to help get the lead out of drinking water in schools and child care facilities across the country, which was a result of Duckworth’s DWWIA law as well as a program she championed and got enshrined into law while she served in the U.S. House of Representatives:

“Building on my efforts in the House, I’m proud my Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped expand my Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing Grant Program to cover lead pipe removal and replacement so today’s new funding announcement could be possible. All of our kids—no matter their race, income or zip code—deserves safe, clean and reliable drinking water, and I’ll keep doing everything I can to make sure the investments in my DWWIA law reach the most disadvantaged communities in our nation.”

Duckworth helped establish the Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing Grant Program and successfully got this program enshrined into law when she served in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Senator renamed the program the Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program to expand eligible use of funds to include voluntary lead testing, compliance monitoring and for the first-time, actual lead in drinking water remediation projects, while also increasing funding levels for the program in Duckworth’s Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

As co-founder of the U.S. Senate’s Environmental Justice Caucus, improving water infrastructure in Illinois and across the country has been one of Duckworth’s top priorities. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included Senator Duckworth’s DWWIA, is the most significant federal investment in water infrastructure in history, including $15 billion to replace lead service lines across the nation. Duckworth’s DWWIA, which has a focus on disadvantaged communities, is helping rebuild our nation’s crumbling and dangerous water infrastructure and enabling communities to repair and modernize their failing wastewater systems, while creating jobs.

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