American Rescue Plan Funding: A Playbook for Efficiently Getting the Lead Out
Summary
Lead is a neurotoxin that continues to harm communities across the country. Though new uses of lead in paint, gasoline, and pipes have been banned for several decades, lead in legacy products and materials remains in communities, posing an ongoing threat to human and economic development. Anywhere from 6 to 10 million residential lead service lines (LSLs), for instance, are still in use nationwide.
Funding included in American Rescue Plan (ARP) grant programs gives cities and states the opportunity to finally eradicate lead contamination in water lines. These steps outlined in this memo (and summarized in the figure below) represent a data- driven approach to rid American communities of the pernicious effects of lead contamination in water systems. This approach builds on research from the University of Michigan and subsequent implementation by BlueConduit in more than 50 cities in the United States and Canada.
FAS has been a leading voice for action on this topic, and has developed a compendium of 150+ heat-related federal policy recommendations.
As temperatures rise, so do energy bills. Energy justice should be a federal priority as the extreme heat crisis exposes energy security gaps.
Not all agricultural education is built the same. Should it be? In a new podcast series, we explore how technical assistance can meet the diverse needs of farmers across local and regional food systems.
OSHA’s proposed heat rule aims to protect approximately 36 million workers in indoor and outdoor settings from heat-related illnesses and fatalities. Its success hinges on substantial investments to bridge the gap between policy and practice.