Federal grants to replace lead pipes in vulnerable communities
H.R. 6060 — SAFE Taps Act · Filed by Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) · Introduced Nov 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the EPA to establish a federal grant program (not loans) to help local governments, public water systems, and Native American tribes replace lead service lines, galvanized steel/iron service lines, and lead drinking water mains. The bill funds infrastructure replacement to comply with EPA regulations requiring lead service line removal within 10 years, prioritizing communities that lack the financial capacity to take on debt, and requires contractors to pay prevailing wages on funded projects.
Why we flagged it
The bill establishes a direct federal grant mechanism to fund lead service line and drinking water main replacement in underserved communities, framed explicitly as a public health and environmental justice measure to comply with existing EPA regulations.
What the text implies
- Grant structure may create administrative burden on small/rural water systems lacking grant-writing capacity; success depends on EPA implementation and appropriations levels.
- Prevailing wage requirement increases project costs; may reduce total miles of pipe replaced per dollar appropriated, creating a trade-off between wage protection and coverage.
- Bill does not specify funding levels, timelines, or allocation formulas; actual impact depends entirely on congressional appropriations and EPA rulemaking.
- Focuses on lead service lines but does not address lead in solder, fixtures, or other sources; replacement alone does not guarantee lead-free water without flushing protocols.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill directly addresses a documented public health crisis—lead in drinking water causes irreversible neurological damage in children—by providing grants (not loans) to disadvantaged communities that cannot afford debt-financed replacement. Prevailing wage requirements protect worker income. The primary cost is federal appropriations; the primary benefit is reduced lead exposure for millions of households.
Who stands to gain
- water infrastructure contractors
- engineering and design firms
- construction labor (prevailing wage beneficiaries)
Named in the bill
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), DOL (Department of Labor), State revolving loan funds, Public water systems, Federally recognized Indian Tribes, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Safe Drinking Water Act, Davis-Bacon Act
Where it stands
- Nov 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Nov 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $40,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, the sponsor, reported $763,350 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Village of Elmwood Park, Il — $40,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,083 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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