MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden is scheduled to make his second visit to Wisconsin since dropping out of the presidential race with a stop in Milwaukee on Tuesday to discuss how his administration has made progress replacing lead pipes and creating good-paying jobs.
The event seems to be a progress update of sorts, as the Biden administration previously set a goal of replacing 100% of lead service lines across the country over the span of a decade.
President Biden has focused on the topic a lot during his presidency, especially in Wisconsin. Multiple White House officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have visited the state to discuss the massive effort of replacing lead pipe laterals, especially in Milwaukee.
Here’s a timeline of those visits:
Vice President Harris visited Milwaukee in January 2022 to show how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) would help speed up the process of removing and replacing lead pipes across the state and nation.
At the time, Harris was joined by fellow Democrats who stopped by WRTP | BIG STEP, a nonprofit training center, to meet with community and public health leaders and chat with union workers about what really goes into replacing lead pipes.
White House Senior Advisor Tom Perez made the trip to Wisconsin in November 2023 to join then-Mayor Katie Rosenberg to highlight an accelerated effort to replace lead pipes, which was just one among a total of 10 communities—Beloit, Frederic, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Racine, Superior, Wausau, West Allis, and Wisconsin Rapids—across the state.
Wausau had 8,000 lead water pipes that it hoped to replace within a five-year time frame. Perez focused on how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which allocated $15 billion toward getting rid of lead pipes, has made a difference.
During a December visit last year, President Joe Biden helped shine a spotlight on some of Milwaukee’s black-owned businesses, including Hero Plumbing.
Rashawn Spivey, who owns the company, got to share with President Biden how his business has worked to help replace lead water service lines in the city.
Eight months later, Spivey was on a global stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to share his experience alongside Deanna Branch of Milwaukee. She became an advocate after her son, Aidan, was hospitalized for lead poisoning when he was just two years old.
Branch was also previously invited to speak at the White House Lead Pipe Summit by Vice President Harris in January 2023.