Washington – Today, the House of Representatives is slated to pass a spending package that cuts funding for lead service line replacements. The legislation (HR 6938) will fund a portion of the federal government, including the Environmental Protection Agency, for fiscal year 2026. 

In December, Food & Water Watch led a letter signed by more than 100 organizations urging Congress to reject these cuts to the lead service line replacement funding. 

A provision included in the legislation would eliminate $125 million for lead service line replacements that Congress previously approved for this year in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021. That bipartisan infrastructure law provided $15 billion to replace lead service lines over 5 years, and this is the last year of funding. 

An earlier Senate spending framework proposed to cut $250 million from the lead pipe funding, but this cut was halved in the latest legislation following advocacy from concerned organizations and members of Congress. 

In advance of the vote, Mary Grant, water program director at Food & Water Watch issued the following statement:

“The Senate must restore full funding to remove toxic lead water pipes across the country, so that no one in the wealthiest nation on Earth continues to be subjected to this antiquated risk. Lead harms every major system of the body, and lead service lines are a primary source of contamination in drinking water – exposing millions of families to this dangerous neurotoxin every single day. Communities need every dollar to replace toxic lead service lines with safer copper ones. 

“While the overall legislation includes a bipartisan rejection of some of Trump’s worst proposed water funding cuts, Congress must do better. It must oppose this cut to funding for lead water line replacements. And it must pass the WATER Act to create a trust fund to provide the lasting support for clean water that our communities need and deserve. 

“Safe, lead-free water is non-negotiable.”

Other than the lead service line funding, the spending legislation for fiscal year 2026 will maintain the level funding for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, which are the main source of federal support for safe drinking water and reliable sewer systems. The original House spending legislation proposed cutting the programs by nearly a quarter ($662 million), and the White House had proposed a nearly 90 percent reduction with the goal to outright eliminate the programs.