RFK Jr. Eliminates Biden’s Progress to Protect Children From Lead Poisoning

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The Trump administration is “saying let them drink lead.”

~Tom Perkins, The Guardian, February 3, 2025

How much lead will your child drink today? RFK Jr. espouses many backward and harmful conspiracies about children’s health. Sadly, one issue he casts aside that hurts kids is the lead pipes distributing drinking water in homes, schools, and other areas, and concerns about lead. Lead exposure should be a top priority. It should be at the top of the list when considering why children have problems learning.

Lead poisoning is a particular problem with poor children, but it can affect all kids if they live in homes or attend schools (not just public schools) where the water runs through lead pipes or where there’s lead in crumbling paint. The CDC estimates that approximately 500,000 children in the United States have high lead levels in their blood.

This is no partisan issue. Republican kids get lead poisoning like Democrats just like they get measles. Either you’re going to protect children or not. Apparently, with the Trump administration, it’s not.

Here, the NRDC provides information that includes a map of the country’s problematic places with lead pipes.

In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration announced $58 million to reduce lead in homes, schools, and childcare facilities as part of its Investing in America Agenda. This is from the EPA before Biden left. What happened to President Biden’s initiative to remove lead from home and school pipes by 2034? Where’s that plan now? Gone.

Eleanor J. Bador of Truthout reported in February that the Trump administration was planning to rescind Biden’s lead-poisoning elimination plan instead of continuing it.

…House Republicans have introduced a joint resolution to repeal the rule. They’ve also invoked the Congressional Review Act, which allows Trump’s administration to disregard rules promulgated during the previous administration’s final months.

The Guardian notes:

Environmentalists expressed alarm about the moves, which, if successful, would in effect prohibit the government from ever requiring lead line replacement in the future, or lowering lead limits.

The Trump administration is also working to kill a recently implemented ban on TCE, a compound that is among the most toxic and common water pollutants, and particularly a risk on military bases.

Does the Trump administration have another plan? Nope. It appears they’re jeopardizing our health and the health of our kids because they hate everything Biden.

Yet lead poisoning is still a problem in America. Lead in a child’s system can cause learning disabilities and other health issues. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that an estimated 9.2 million lead service lines (LSLs) serve water to properties in communities across the United States.

Why eliminate protections for children? Lead is a problem in homes, schools, and preschools in many states.

Most recently, Fox News reported that two schools in Milwaukee had to close due to lead paint problems. It’s good that those in Milwaukee are paying attention, but how many other places are? Lead also affects American Indian reservations, where children have been exposed to it for years.

During the first Trump administration, they talked about the danger to children but took no observable action. Most of the task force reports aren’t accessible. See: Trump Administration Unveils Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposure. The new Trump EPA page mostly reads like a high schooler compiled reports about lead dangers, but again, no action is taken.

RFK Jr. expressed concern about lead poisoning. Still, CBS reported that cuts to the CDC’s branch responsible for investigating and preventing lead poisoning brought it to a standstill, and likely affected the lead poisoning responses that could have helped children in Milwaukee and on reservations.

Kennedy said 20 percent of the layoffs, including those in lead poisoning prevention and surveillance, were mistakes, but those positions have not been reinstated thus far.

The states and local communities will be left to address lead poisoning and pipes independently. However, states have had significant water lead problems for years without addressing them.

For example, in 2023, Get the Lead Out, from the U.S. Public Interest Network (PIRG), its Education Fund monitored states and found this in Virginia.

From the PIRG website:

Virginia does not have enough policies to ensure our children’s schools have safe drinking water. In 2017, a law was passed that required public schools constructed in 1986 or earlier to test.

In Chesterfield County, ten drinking fountains across eight schools had lead.
Richmond shut down two of their elementary school water fountains.
Petersburg found 14 contaminated water sources, and had them removed or taken out of service.
In November of 2019, Virginia Beach City Public Schools found 51 contaminated water sources in 27 schools.

In 2022, the Virginia Department of Health launched a statewide voluntary Lead Testing in Drinking Water at Schools and Child Care Centers in Virginia program. This program is funded by the EPA, and if utilized can be a great way to identify the scale of the problem. However, there is no dedicated state or federal funding to fix and reduce the problem.

Virginia isn’t alone. Most states have significant issues with lead in pipes, including in schools and preschools. Here’s another example: a 2023 PBS report about Montana.

The dangers of lead poisoning are no secret, yet children are still at risk of lead poisoning. Aside from the Biden administration’s attempts, it’s outrageous that America continues to plod along, reaching a dangerous federal standstill on this critical issue. Many ignore that lead poisoning could be affecting America’s kids and how they perform in school. No one in this administration seems to care enough to do anything about it.

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