WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a visit to a Philadelphia water treatment plant on Friday, President Joe Biden announced a $500 million plan to upgrade the city's water system and replace lead service lines, as he continues his focus on the rollout of economic legislation passed in his first two years.
The bipartisan infrastructure law includes $15 billion over five years for lead pipe removal around the country; the Biden administration so far has funded removal of 100,000 lead service lines, according to the White House.
“It’s especially bad in older cities,” Biden said Friday. “Our water systems break down [and] the pipes start to deteriorate – exposure to lead pipes increases.”
So far $1.2 billion has been allocated for 23 states, including Pennsylvania, to replace lead pipes with grants from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The money announced Friday includes a $160 million grant for Philadelphia, plus a $340 million water infrastructure loan from the EPA.
"I was given a copy of a speech that I made about 30 years ago saying [that] we need an infrastructure bill to deal with water. I'm not joking," Biden said Friday, noting that investments in things like water system upgrades, road improvements and bridge fixes were overdue. "The point is we've been needing this for a long time."
Most of the money comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in late 2021, which Biden also highlighted this week in Baltimore and New York City, two areas getting rail tunnel upgrades.
Now in the second half of his term, the president has shifted to the implementation stage of his economic agenda, which also includes a focus on domestic manufacturing of critical goods like semiconductor chips.
“The state of our economy is strong,” he said at the White House earlier Friday in a speech to highlight the more than 500,000 jobs added in January’s jobs report.
Vice President Harris last week announced a new accelerator program for lead pipe removal that includes Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and Wisconsin. Those four states will receive hands-on guidance from the EPA.
Harris on Friday spoke about lead-contaminated water’s impact on children.
“It stunts growth, it causes damage to the brain, and it affects a child's ability to learn,” she said.
Lead poisoning can cause mood swings, lower IQ and other developmental issues in kids.
“With the largest investment in America's water infrastructure in history, we are going to see this through and get this work done,” Harris said.
The president and vice president were later scheduled to speak at a Democratic National Committee event in Philadelphia, where Biden is again expected to focus on economic progress, jobs created and his legislative accomplishments of the first two years.
He’s facing increased scrutiny in Washington from a Republican-led House of Representatives and criticisms about his handling of classified documents found at his former office and home.
With the State of the Union address coming next week, Biden has renewed calls for political unity, something he's acknowledged being unable to achieve despite his promises to do so as a candidate in 2020. But those appeals haven't tempered Biden's broadsides against his predecessor, Donald Trump, and the Republican Party's continued fealty to the former president's “Make America Great Again” movement.
“Look, this is not your father’s Republican Party,” the president said this week at a DNC fundraiser in New York. “This is a different breed of cat.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.