Layoffs and funding delays could slow fight against lead, experts say

The entire staff of the lead poisoning office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was included in layoffs at the agency last week. And in recent weeks, state water officials have complained that funding for replacing lead pipes had been frozen or delayed.

These actions have alarmed public health experts, who worry that decades of progress in eliminating a persistent and preventable threat could be jeopardized.

More than 20 employees from the CDC’s Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch were let go as part of a sweeping staff reduction across the Department of Health and Human Services, where more than 10,000 employees were put on administrative leave.

The division played a key role in addressing lead contamination in applesauce pouches and in helping communities across the country curb the threat of lead in schools.

Perri Ruckart, a senior health scientist and team chief who had been at the CDC for over 25 years, lost her job.

“We’re concerned that the progress that we made in reducing childhood lead exposures will disappear and additional children will be put at risk from a condition that is entirely preventable,” Ruckart said. “There’s going to be repercussions for children who are going to fall through the cracks and not be connected to essential services to ensure their academic achievement and success.”

Up to half a million children in the United States suffer from dangerous levels of lead contamination, according to the CDC.

In a statement, an HHS spokesperson said the agency plans to continue the work of the lead poisoning branch under a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America. Employees of the lead branch have not been offered positions under the new division.

The Biden administration had made lead a top environmental priority, allocating nearly $18 billion for water system upgrades and pipe replacement with a goal of eliminating lead service pipes in a decade. In the early months of the Trump administration, though, as grants authorized by President Joe Biden’s climate legislation were frozen or terminated, a number of states began to worry that they had not yet received their 2024 lead funding.

Massachusetts had expected to receive over $50 million to address aging water infrastructure in February and sounded the alarm when the money hadn’t been awarded by the end of March.

“This thoughtless delay is putting the safety and well-being of our most vulnerable residents at risk, especially our children,” said Deborah Goldberg, chair of the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust, in a March 25 news release. “Providing clean, lead-free drinking water should not be controversial.”

The next day, Jessica Kramer, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water, was questioned about funding pauses for lead service line replacement during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Kramer said she had been made aware of the issue in Massachusetts and that the news came as a “surprise.” She added that the Office of Water promptly acted to “clearly communicate the expectation that that money should be going out to the states, and there should not have been a reason that it was withheld.”

In response to questions about lead pipe funding, the EPA confirmed that there had been delays. “Within the last few weeks, senior leadership in the Office of Water learned of delays in providing funding from EPA Regions to the states. Leadership took action by directing the Regions to issue funding to states immediately. The Regions have responded by issuing funding to states,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Mona Hanna, a pediatrician and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University who helped expose the widespread contamination of Flint’s drinking water a decade ago, said that funding delays and firing lead experts could harm millions of children and adults.

“We will see a thousand Flints throughout our nation if we continue these austerity-driven measures,” Hanna said.