# Lead-Free America Bonds Act of 2021

This bill creates a new financial tool to help cities and towns replace lead pipes in their drinking water systems. Lead in drinking water is a serious public health problem, especially for children, and many communities have old pipes made of lead that need to be replaced. The bill makes it easier and cheaper for local governments to borrow money for these replacement projects by offering them a federal tax credit.

Here's how it works in practice: When a city or water utility needs to replace lead service lines (the pipes that carry water from the main water line to individual homes), they can issue bonds—basically borrowing money from investors. Normally, investors want higher interest rates to buy these bonds because they're considered riskier investments. Under this bill, the federal government will pay part of the interest costs for these bonds, which means the local government can borrow money at a lower cost. The government essentially reimburses the bond issuer for a portion of each interest payment, making the bonds more attractive to investors without requiring the local government to pay as much interest.

The bill targets communities that have already been identified as having lead problems. It applies to water systems that have received official notice that their lead levels exceeded safe limits, either in the six years before this law was passed or anytime after. Once a water system gets that notice, they have three years to issue these special bonds. The money raised must be used entirely to replace lead components in the water system—not for other water projects. The bill also requires that these projects follow prevailing wage standards (the Davis-Bacon Act), meaning workers on these projects must be paid fair wages.

This is essentially a way for the federal government to subsidize lead pipe replacement by making it cheaper for local governments to borrow the money needed for these critical public health improvements.

Lead-Free America Bonds Act of 2021

Pascrell, Bill

Lead-Free America Bonds Act of 2021 This bill allows issuers of qualified lead drinking water service line bonds a credit for interest payments under such bonds. The bill defines qualified lead drinking water service line bond as any bond issue (other than a private activity bond) if 100% of the available project proceeds of such issue are used to replace lead components of one or more eligible public water systems that are not lead free.