Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently had to clarify the advantages of not consuming poisonous lead to Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R).
Kobach recently criticized President Joe Biden’s plan to replace over 9 million lead pipes nationwide during the next ten years. While a 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law included $15 million for the plan, Kobach and 14 other state attorneys general signed a letter asserting that the proposal is underfunded, will require homeowners to pay to replace their home’s pipes, and will have a limited effect on reducing lead levels in water.
In their letter, the attorneys general wrote, “[The plan] sets an almost impossible timeline, will cost billions and will infringe on the rights of the States and their residents – all for benefits that may be entirely speculative.”
Kobach repeated this nearly verbatim in a March 7 post on X (formerly Twitter).
Buttigieg responded by writing, “The benefit of *not being lead poisoned* is not speculative. It is enormous. And because lead poisoning leads to irreversible cognitive harm, massive economic loss, and even higher crime rates, this work represents one of the best returns on public investment ever observed.”
Indeed, other users on X added a community note to Kobach’s original post that said, “Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and childhood lead poisoning has an impact on many developmental and biological processes, most notably intelligence, behavior, and overall life achievement. Lead pipes should be replaced.” The note linked to informative articles from the American Journal of Public Health and Current Environmental Health Reports.
Kobach later responded to Buttigieg, writing, “What’s speculative is that the admin’s EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] rule will have ANY EFFECT AT ALL on lead in tap water. It doesn’t touch the pipes in buildings where most lead pipes are. You’d know that had you bothered to click the link [to Kobach’s February 9 statement against the plan].”
The Brookings Institution, a social policy think tank, noted that the actual cost of replacing all of the nation’s lead pipes is closer to $47 billion. The Biden administration originally requested $45 billion for the project, but congressional Republicans negotiated the amount down to $15 billion. The institute also noted that replacing pipes in crowded urban cities like Chicago could take 40 to 50 years.
The think tank acknowledged that replacing only utility-owned pipes is less cost-effective than replacing privately-owned pipes and may actually increase the lead levels in drinking water. The cost of replacing privately owned pipes may be prohibitive for homeowners, Brookings added, though some cities and states have tried to reduce these costs by offering grants and forgivable loans or securing additional federal funding.
Explaining its plan, the White House wrote that over 9.2 million American households currently connect to water through lead pipes, particularly poorer communities and communities of color. Eliminating lead exposure is “a crucial component” of the Biden administration’s “historic commitment to advancing environmental justice,” the White House added.
Kobach is against LGBTQ+ rights. asked state officials for help in enforcing Senate Bill 180, a 2023 state law that forbids transgender individuals from using bathrooms, locker rooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers that match their gender identity.
He also is against allowing trans and nonbinary individuals to change gender markers on government-issued ID documents, such as driver’s licenses and passports. Not changing the markers can expose trans individuals to harassment and violence. He also supports policies requiring schools to disclose the trans kids' identities to their potentially unsupportive parents.
