Friend,

For too long, our government has failed to protect our right to clean water.

Lead-contaminated water has disproportionately harmed children in low-income communities and communities of color for decades, including communities in Michigan’s 13th district.

I ran for Congress to give marginalized communities like mine a voice. And that’s why, in the past month, I led and helped pass historic amendments to finally clean up our drinking water and protect our kids.

A bipartisan U.S. House majority voted for these historic amendments and added them to recently-passed Appropriations bills.

Now it’s time for the Senate to act.

Sign the petition now: Demand that the Senate pass Appropriations bills to replace lead drinking water pipes and finally provide everyone, regardless of income, with clean drinking water.

I’m co-sponsoring this petition with MI State Rep. Jon Hoadley, an environmental champion who’s running for Congress against a pro-pollution Republican.

Jon and I agree: It’s past time to address this massive public health crisis, which has been ravaging our communities for decades... especially during a pandemic in which the ability to access clean water at home is critical.

That’s why over 100 environmental justice and community groups support these amendments, which finally provide the funding we need to fully replace dangerous lead-contaminated drinking water pipes for over nine million homes currently at risk of poisonous lead exposure.

The amendments—now in the the House-passed Appropriations bills—prioritize funding for the hardest-hit communities and would increase lead pipe replacement funding from the $20 million Congress allocated last year to a much-needed $23.5 billion.

These are the kinds of investments we need to ensure environmental justice for all and to guarantee water as a human right.

Sign now to demand that the Senate act to finally provide everyone, regardless of income, with clean drinking water.

We have until the end of this month for the Senate to pass these Appropriations bills, which will determine the federal government’s 2021 budget.

If they fail to act, we risk another government shutdown. And families will continue to go without clean drinking water in the midst of and beyond the pandemic.

We can’t let that happen.

I want to assure you that I won’t back down: I’ve been standing up to corporate polluters for decades. I’m not going to stop pushing for the real, bold change that we all deserve. And I’m planning to keep raising the bar of what people expect from their elected representatives.

But to build the power we need to keep winning on policies and public opinion, it takes all of us.

Please sign the petition now to demand that the Senate replace lead drinking water pipes and affirm water as a human right.

Thank you,

Rashida