When President Joe Biden gives his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, Deanna Branch will be in the First Lady's Box.
The White House says, "Branch is working to build a lead-safe environment for her community after her son Aidan battled lead poisoning as a result of unsafe levels of lead in their drinking water and home.
In 2022, Deanna shared her three-year-old son's lead poisoning diagnosis with NBC 26's Milwaukee affiliate, TMJ4.
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“The pediatrician called me, and she just said, ‘Come in right away,' she said 'don't come into the office, come to Children's Hospital.’ She already got him a room and admitted him. They just said his lead level was high, I don't even know what lead was,” said Deanna.
Milwaukee is on a mission to replace all lead service lines - pipes that bring drinking water to a home. It's an enormous task to replace 67,000 lead laterals at a cost of $750 million. At the current pace, it would take the city decades to replace them all.
The White House says, "the Biden-Harris Administration is working to replace all lead service lines in America in the next decade."
The Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2021 will help Milwaukee pick up the pace to replace lead service lines.
Wisconsin is set to receive $255 million between 2022 and 2026 in federal funding. TMJ4's Ben Jordan previously has looked at how the money will be used.
You can watch President Biden's State of the Union Address Tuesday night on NBC 26.
