Biden to visit Milwaukee Tuesday to discuss lead pipe replacement

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will return to Milwaukee on Tuesday to discuss his administration’s progress in replacing lead pipes in Wisconsin and across the country, according to the White House.
Biden is expected to tout the billions of dollars the administration has directed to replacing lead pipes through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a White House official said. He’ll also discuss efforts to create “good paying jobs.” The official did not say where in Milwaukee Biden would stop.
Lead exposure is an outsized problem in Milwaukee. The city has estimated the cost of replacing all lead service lines on both public and private property at nearly $800 million. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson has said he wants to replace all of the city’s lead pipes in 20 years.
The Biden-Harris administration over the last few years has touted its efforts to replace lead pipes in Wisconsin’s largest city and has frequently highlighted members of the community while doing so. Biden took Deanna Branch, a Milwaukee mother and activist vocal about the city’s lead problem, to his State of the Union address last year. And Rashawn Spivey, who replaces pipes in the city, has appeared with both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Both Branch and Spivey spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer.
The White House said the Biden administration has announced about $9 billion nationwide, including over $200 million in Wisconsin, to replace lead pipes.
On Tuesday, Biden will “announce steps to accelerate progress” toward reaching the administration’s goal of replacing all lead pipes over the next 10 years, the official told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Biden’s planned stop Tuesday comes amid a flurry of campaign visits in the state from Harris and former president Donald Trump, with the election less than a month away.
Harris on Thursday stopped in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party, for a rally with Wyoming Republican and Trump critic Liz Cheney.
Trump is coming Sunday for a rally at the Dodge County Airport in Juneau, following stops in Dane and Milwaukee counties this past week.