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WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, is introducing a pair of bills this week with Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib that would provide federal money to remove hazardous lead pipes, plumbing fixtures and paint from aging homes.
Their “GET THE LEAD OUT Act of 2026″ creates a new federal grant program run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace lead-based pipes and fixtures in housing that isn’t already federally assisted or federally owned.
The grants would cover risk assessments, inspections, interim controls and full abatement. Applicants would have to be a state or local government with an approved housing affordability strategy. The bill authorizes $9.5 billion a year for lead hazard grants from 2026 through 2035, plus additional set-asides for state training and certification programs. It also writes new disclosure rules requiring sellers and landlords to warn buyers and tenants about known lead-based pipe hazards before a sale or lease closes, with civil penalties for violations.
The companion “REPLACE Act” amends existing HUD and Safe Drinking Water Act programs to strengthen lead-paint hazard remediation and better coordinate paint and pipe removal efforts already underway at the local level.
Lead exposure poses serious health risks including anemia, brain damage and heart and kidney problems, with children and pregnant women facing the highest risk. According to Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Cleveland has one of the nation’s highest levels of childhood lead exposure. Cleveland has an average of 12 to 13 percent of children with elevated lead levels, with some neighborhoods seeing rates as high as 25 percent.
Much of the area’s housing was built before the federal government banned lead paint for consumer use in 1978, and before it barred new lead pipes, solder and flux from public water systems and household plumbing in 1986. Neither law required removing existing lead paint or pipes, leaving that cost to cities, landlords and homeowners.
“For decades we’ve known that lead is dangerous and we’ve had the tools to address it,” said a statement from Brown. “It is long past time for the federal government to move faster and ensure every family and child has a safe place to live.”
Some of that lead paint came from Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams, which produced it for more than 80 years before phasing it out. A California appeals court held the company liable for promoting lead paint for interior residential use in homes built before 1950 even though the company knew of its risks to children. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the company’s appeal, Sherwin-Williams and its co-defendants settled the case for more than $300 million.
Brown’s office says the two bills are part of her broader Safe and Affordable Housing Agenda, a package she announced in June.
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