This Democratic legislation takes concrete steps to protect children following the devastating consequences of the Snyder Administration’s lead pipe disaster
LANSING — In case you missed it, our Democratic trifecta isn’t just passing new, historic legislation – they’re making sure to address the harmful impacts of previous failed leadership.
Last week, Governor Whitmer signed a package of bills to protect Michigan children from lead-contaminated water – another successful health initiative that Democrats championed last week including codifying the ACA into state law and the state Senate passing the Reproductive Health Act. Democrats’ “Filter First” bill package requires all daycares and schools to have filter faucets and a continued management plan to ensure all Michigan students have clean, lead-free water.
Since disgraced former Governor Rick Snyder’s Flint water crisis, Democrats have been fighting to protect all children from lead poisoning. Forty years of ineffective Republican leadership has hurt our state’s infrastructure, and we are so proud that Democrats are taking on this vital issue.
Michigan Dems are ensuring the current generation of Michigan students does not have to suffer the way children did during the Snyder years, so that every young Michigander has the tools they need to be healthy and successful.
Find out more about Democrats’ investment in clean water below:
Michigan Advance: ‘Filter first’ bills signed to ensure clean water in schools
- The “filter first” bills will implement the Clean Drinking Water Act and require Michigan schools and childcare centers to install filtered-faucets, develop a drinking water management plan and conduct routine sampling and testing to ensure children have access to safe drinking water.
- “Flint has paid an unimaginable price for water contamination. This is why I continue to push legislation that focuses on clean water and why this filter first bill package has been a priority for me. We must take steps to protect Michiganders from harmful contaminants — especially our kids,” state Rep. Cynthia Neeley (D-Flint), the lead sponsor of one of the three bills in the package, said in a statement…
- “Michigan will become the first state to implement a solution that actually gets lead out of drinking water in schools and childcare centers while delivering dramatic cost savings,” said Joan Leary Matthews, senior attorney with the NRDC in a statement…
- “Every parent wants to make sure their kids are healthy, and today’s bills ensure that our kids have safe and clean drinking water when they sip from the drinking fountain,” Whitmer said in a statement on Thursday.
Bridge Michigan: Michigan makes history, requires filtered water in all schools, daycares
- No amount of lead in water is safe for kids, ” sponsoring state Rep. Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, said in a statement. “…The least we can expect is that the place we send our children every day to learn and play is safe and has clean drinking water.”…
- The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group that pushed for the new Michigan policy, contends installing filtered water bottle filling stations in every school will be significantly cheaper than making schools test every tap and then replace units with high lead levels, as considered in other states.
- The “landmark” Michigan law is now a “national model for protecting kids from lead in schools,” the group’s attorney, Joan Leary Matthews, said in a statement. “These laws go straight to the solution by proactively requiring the installation of lead-removing filters without first testing for lead that will inevitably be found.”
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