finally tonight the fight against lead poisoning could be in jeopardy public health experts are sounding the alarm about federal funding cuts and layoffs to departments that protect public and environmental health including big reductions in the CDC's lead poisoning prevention branch which has played a key role in addressing lead contamination in everything from schoolyard equipment to applesauce pouches and it comes as New Jersey leaders debate cutting money from a state program that does the same senior correspondent Joanna Gagas spoke with folks in Trenton who could be affected for Miss Grant and her four children ranging from 8 years old to 15 isles is here to help clean up the lead that was found around her windows around the doors and around the trim and on the walls inside her home the Grant family is one of hundreds of thousands in New Jersey with lead contamination some have it in the paint others have lead in the soil around their home but lead exposure of any amount is extremely harmful especially for young kids under the age of six that can affect their learning their behavior and many of these effects lead to physical challenges the damage is permanent and it is profound brain impacts causing cognitive developmental delays high blood pressure nerve disorders children impacted by lead are 30% more likely to fail math and reading by third grade they are seven times more likely to drop out of high school they are six times more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system isles held a press conference last week with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and leaders from Trenton to announce their dismay at the Trump administration proposing significant funding cuts and its Department of Health and Human Services firing the entire staff of its lead prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the Center for Disease Control could lose 20% of its staff and $3 billion in health contracts and laid off the entire staff at the Childhoodled Poisoning Prevention Program as well as the National Asthma Control Program this loss of funding in the institutional knowledge associated with these firings will have significant consequences nationally and here in New Jersey new Jersey gets about $1.2 $2 million from the CDC for through its lead control and asthma efforts hhs Secretary Robert F kennedy Jr has vacasillated on whether firing the entire lead prevention team earlier this month was a bad idea although his department has said in a statement they do plan to continue the work of lead remediation some projects are already underway here in New Jersey through the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA bonnie got the EPA in here to once and for all deal with the lead that was in the soil um whether it was the old abandoned pottery factories the EPA willingly came in tested our parks tested our schools and tested homes and now that they've cleaned up the parks and the schools they want to work on houses the EPA still has unfinished business in New Jersey right now today there are 250,000 homes across the state 25,000 here in Mercer County that have lead in or around them and each of those homes has kids under the age of six the money that uh these organiz these agencies are operating under is money that's already been allocated by Congress through the appropriations process and legally they don't have the right to to take that money and use it any other place but given the slashing of budgets under DOE the Department of Government Efficiency Congresswoman Watson Coleman is concerned the work in New Jersey could be slashed too these cuts are strategic these cuts are affecting those who have the least voice among us and who need all advocates and elected officials to stand up push back and speak up but lead remediation programs could also see a nearly $4 million cut in state aid under the budget proposed by Governor Murphy they're not as critical when it comes to those funds shrinking the state has dedicated a tremendous amount of resources to cleaning up lead here in New Jersey there's been $180 million allocated to this initiative that is still being spent the state's been a great partner on that you know where the state ends up on a budget process that's only just begun i think it's too early to forecast io CEO Shawn Jackson believes the state funding will be restored but they need federal support too to continue repairing homes like they're doing here for the Grant family in Trenton i'm Joanna Gagas NJ Spotlight News