Biden’s clean drinking water plan is being rebranded as MAHA

This story is a partnership between Grist and Chicago Public Media, a public media company serving the Chicago metropolitan region. The Trump administration is promoting multibillion-dollar funding packages to help states and disadvantaged communities secure clean drinking water as part of its promise to “Make America Healthy Again.” There’s just one catch: The federal dollars were previously promised under a climate and infrastructure law passed . Last month, the EPA announced a $1 billion commitment to address drinking water contaminated by PFAS, a class of synthetic compounds commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” Two days later, it announced $2.9 billion to help track down and replace lead pipes, which can leach lead — a potent neurotoxin that can cause irreversible cognitive, cardiovascular, and reproductive harm — into drinking water.  “The Trump EPA is committed to Make America Healthy Again , land, and water — and ,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in a statement. In a separate statement, EPA Assistant Administrator Jess Kramer said that the “Trump EPA is committed to tackling lead exposure” and that the funds “will help protect current and future generations across America .”   But both funding streams were appropriated well before Trump took office. Congress originally passed the bipartisan infrastructure law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, in 2021, promising to deliver more than $50 billion over five years to revamp the nation’s water infrastructure — the largest investment of its kind since the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Billions of dollars for lead pipe removal and PFAS contamination were tucked into the Biden-era law and scheduled to run out this year.     Grist thanks its sponsors. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How Approximately $15 billion of those funds were set aside specifically for removing lead service lines, which deliver drinking water to homes and businesses. For the past five years, the EPA has been distributing these funds based on the share of lead lines in each state. The nearly $2.9 billion that the agency announced last month is the fifth and final of the annual disbursements required under the IIJA. Another $5 billion was set aside for PFAS cleanup. But this year’s funds for lead pipe removal fell short of what Congress originally pledged. Republican lawmakers repurposed $125 million from this year’s appropriation for wildfire prevention, and the Trump administration initially delayed releasing the $2.9 billion allocated for 2025. The EPA only released the funds after pressure from Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and six other Illinois lawmakers, who alleged that the funds were being withheld from Democrat-led states.  The Trump administration has also proposed cutting the EPA’s budget in half in 2027, including a 90 percent reduction in long-standing funding for lead pipe replacement.