WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., and Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., welcomed the announcement that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $191,000 in funding for New Mexico to protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and childcare facilities on Aug. 27.
“Our kids need clean drinking water and healthy learning environments where they can grow, play, and thrive,” Heinrich said. “I’m proud to deliver these federal resources to help protect New Mexico kids’ health and safety by replacing dangerous lead pipes in their schools, childcare centers, and preschools. This funding helps ensure that the places our kids spend large parts of their day—especially in early years of development— are safe.”
This funding will be delivered as grants from the EPA’s Voluntary School and Childcare Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Heinrich secured over $25 million for this program in the 2024 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill that passed in March.
The program was first authorized by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, also known as the 2016 Water Resources Development Act, which Heinrich and Luján both helped to pass. Heinrich and Luján voted to expand the EPA’s Voluntary School and Childcare Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program when they advanced the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act, bipartisan legislation that passed in the Senate in April 2021 to strengthen drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, foster economic growth, enhance the health and well-being of families across the nation, and address environmental justice.
The Infrastructure Law, which Democrats in the New Mexico Congressional Delegation helped to pass into law in 2021, included those same provisions from the Senate-passed DWWIA to expand and build upon the WIIN grant programs. The Infrastructure Law dedicated an unprecedented $15 billion to removing lead from drinking water.
This funding can be used to deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan by encouraging federal, state, and local governments to use every tool to deliver clean drinking water, replace lead pipes, and remediate lead paint. It is especially critical to make improvements to places where children spend significant time such as schools, childcare centers, family childcare centers, preschools, and Head Start programs.
By Sen. Martin Heinrich
