Vice President Kamala Harris visits Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood
Harris speaks at Community Empowerment Association, discusses federal funding for replacing lead water lines
Pittsburgh to talk about you here in your backyard, but then to talk about you around the country as *** model of what can be done around the country. So secretary fudge, Administrator Regan, I want to thank you for traveling with me, Congressman lamb, thank you for your leadership. I’ve seen you and congressman Doyle the work that you do in Washington, D. C. Representing the people of this district so so well and so strongly and again, kim, thank you for that. So basically, we come at this issue from probably an obvious perspective, which is that we believe the President president job, I deny our administration, we all believe that that all people have *** right to be able to drink clean water, that all people have *** right to breathe clean air. So we approach this from that perspective, Which is that we as *** society and certainly as *** government must ensure that that right is real and that it is protected on the issue then of lead pipes. We know that up to 10 million homes in our country Have lead pipes that are feeding the water that flows in their home. We know that when it comes to lead paint, we’re looking at at least 24 million homes that have lead paint and those are the numbers that have been reported. One of the things that Kim that we talked about was there are plenty of folks who live in homes, whether they’re renters or owners that may be unaware that there is lead in their paint or in the pipes. And so again, that highlights the importance of what’s happening here in Pittsburgh, which it is not only about addressing the issue in terms of amelioration and mitigation, but addressing the issue in terms of doing the first step, which is public education about the seriousness of the issue and the need then to address the harm that the issue creates and to do that, what we must do as government and together collectively to allow homeowners to become aware if there paint contains lead or their pipes are flowing with lead in terms of the water that then goes into their home. So the work we are doing together includes public education. It includes speaking loudly about what we must do to let people know about their rights and about the harm. So the harm, let’s talk about that. Um, we talked with, for example, Gwendolyn who runs *** child care center about the realities of lead poisoning, that includes creating developmental issues for our Children. Learning disabilities can result from drinking toxic water and it’s basically poison. Um, when we talk about lead in water or in pain, we have talked about what it means in terms of the harm to adults, it can increase blood pressure, I can decrease kidney function. These are real harms that are created because of the lead in paint or in pipes. So then there is the issue that is about public education and part of that is again about what we will do with the $50 billion dollars that the president that our administration, together with our Congress members and these two congress members in particular What we have done to put $50 billion dollars into the amelioration of lead in paint and in pipes. That money will go to *** number of things, public education. It will go toward what the local governments can do to facilitate testing at home tests, things of that nature. And it will go to the removal then of lead pipes. Let’s think about why this is important and why government has *** responsibility here. Lead pipes exist in many communities, but the disparities exist when *** particular community and the members…
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