Opinion: Get the lead out

By Sen. Joni Ernst

Don’t drink the water!

That’s my advice if you’re visiting a government building any time soon.

Despite the Biden-Harris administration’s promise that “every American should be able to turn on the tap and drink clean, safe water,” this government “cannot ensure water in its buildings is safe.” Those are the shocking findings of a series of reviews the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General conducted over the past several years.

In fact, today it’s safer to drink water out of a tap in Flint, Michigan than from the faucet in many government buildings.

Why?

Mass teleworking by federal bureaucrats has left government buildings at just 12-25 percent occupancy which is causing the water to be unused, become stagnant, and allow contaminants to fester. Toxic levels of Legionella, lead, and copper were all found in the water in government buildings across the country.

This summer, the headquarters of at least two federal agencies — the Federal Trade Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — were evacuated due to unsafe water. If that wasn’t bad enough, multiple buildings housing offices for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is tasked with ensuring all Americans have safe drinking water, were found to have unsafe water.

But perhaps worst of all, children in the government’s child care centers are being allowed to drink contaminated water. In one case, a child care center where alarmingly high levels of lead was detected remained operational for more than two years after the center was re-opened, and then for another two months after samples were collected.

Completely unacceptable.

How did the EPA fail so spectacularly at its most important task of keeping drinking water safe? Because under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the agency has instead been focused on pushing a radical climate agenda and big government takeovers, such as a legal fight to gain regulatory control over 97 percent of the land in Iowa in order to regulate water in ditches.

I wish I was making it up.

This week, I demanded answers from EPA Administrator Michael Regan on how and why the agency was completely unaware that buildings housing its own offices have had toxic water for years and what steps are being taken to protect children at these buildings. If the agency cannot keep the water safe in its own buildings, it has no business forcing the Green New Deal on the rest of us.

The same day I sent a letter to the EPA demanding answers, Legionella and lead were found in another EPA office, this time in Chicago.

We cannot allow another Flint water crisis to occur inside government buildings.

The Biden-Harris administration needs to get bureaucrats back into the office and get the lead out.

Joni Ernst, a native of Red Oak and a combat veteran, represents Iowa in the United States Senate.