Pfas Action Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAPPAS. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding and for his leadership on this legislation.

I rise in support of the PFAS Action Act, a landmark bill that will protect millions of Americans from these toxic forever chemicals.

We know PFAS persists in the environment and the human body, and it is making our constituents sick. This legislation addresses legacy contamination and its associated health effects. Importantly, this bill will also go to the source, and halt active contamination and work to hold polluters accountable.

That is exactly what my provision is designed to do. This legislation includes my bill, the Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act, which addresses toxic PFAS discharges and invests in local infrastructure.

No polluter should be able to dump PFAS unchecked into our waterways and into our wastewater systems. PFAS should be handled like other toxic substances that have been regulated through the Clean Water Act.

We must also support wastewater systems to make necessary infrastructure upgrades that will stop PFAS from poisoning our environment and our water. This bill would authorize $200 million a year for these grants.

Madam Speaker, this is a bipartisan issue, and it is an issue that literally affects every State and every district across this country.

Just yesterday I joined a round table of concerned leaders in my district whose message was crystal clear: Pass this bill and protect the health and well-being of our communities and our families.

I heard from the town manager in Bedford, New Hampshire, who spoke to me about residents receiving bottled water for the past 3 years because their wells are contaminated. Families and businesses in several neighboring communities face the same situation. How many more years are we going to let these people wait for clean water?

A constituent of mine named Lisa, from the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, has two kids who drank PFAS-laced water for a number of years when they were growing up. They faced a number of unimaginable health impacts as a result of that.

How many more households like Lisa's will there be in this particular situation if we allow more PFAS out into the environment?

Far too many Americans are drinking from contaminated systems and wells. Far too many Americans are at the mercy of industrial polluters and have brought this problem to our doorstep.

I urge passage of this bill.

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