House - Financial Services | Senate - Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
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Senate - 12/03/2009 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (All Actions)
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This bill has the status Passed House
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Introduced
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(
[actionDate] => 2009-01-08
[displayText] => Introduced in House
[externalActionCode] => 1000
[description] => Introduced
[chamberOfAction] => House
)
Passed House
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(
[actionDate] => 2009-12-02
[displayText] => Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote.(text: CR H13399-13400)
[externalActionCode] => 8000
[description] => Passed House
[chamberOfAction] => House
)
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Shown Here: Referred in Senate (12/03/2009)
111th CONGRESS 1st Session
H. R. 320
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED
STATES
December 3, 2009
Received; read twice and referred to the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs
AN ACT
To amend the National Manufactured Housing
Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 to require that weather radios be
installed in all manufactured homes manufactured or sold in the United
States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1.Short title.
This Act may be cited as the
“CJ’s Home Protection Act of
2009”.
SEC. 2. Congressional
findings.
The Congress finds
that—
(1) nearly 20,000,000 Americans live in
manufactured homes, which often provide a more accessible and affordable way
for many families to buy their own homes;
(2) manufactured
housing plays a vital role in providing housing for low- and moderate-income
families in the United States;
(3) NOAA Weather Radio
(NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather
information directly from a nearby National Weather Service (NWS) office, and
broadcasts NWS warnings, watches, forecasts, and other all-hazard information
24 hours a day;
(4) the operators of manufactured housing
communities should be encouraged to provide a safe place of shelter for
community residents or a plan for the evacuation of community residents to a
safe place of shelter within a reasonable distance of the community for use by
community residents in times of severe weather, including tornados and high
winds, and local municipalities should be encouraged to require approval of
these plans;
(5) the operators of manufactured housing
communities should be encouraged to provide a written reminder semiannually to
all owners of manufactured homes in the manufactured housing community to
replace the batteries in their weather radios; and
(6) weather radio
manufacturers should include, in the packaging of weather radios, a written
reminder to replace the batteries twice each year and written instructions on
how to do so.
SEC. 3.Federal manufactured
home construction and safety standard.
Section 604 of the National Manufactured
Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5403) is amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(i) Weather
radios.—
“(1) CONSTRUCTION AND
SAFETY STANDARD.—The Federal
manufactured home construction and safety standards established by the
Secretary under this section shall require that each manufactured home
delivered for sale shall be supplied with a weather radio inside the
manufactured home that—
“(A) is capable of
broadcasting emergency information relating to local weather conditions;
“(B) is equipped with a
tone alarm;
“(C) is equipped with
Specific Alert Message Encoding, or SAME technology; and
“(D) complies with Consumer Electronics
Association (CEA) Standard 2009–A (or current revision thereof) Performance
Specification for Public Alert Receivers.
“(2) LIABILITY
PROTECTIONS.—No aspect of the
function, operation, performance, capabilities, or utilization of the weather
radio required under this subsection, or any instructions related thereto,
shall be subject to the requirements of section 613 or 615 or any regulations
promulgated by the Secretary pursuant to the authority under such
sections.”.
SEC. 4. Establishment.
Not later than the expiration of the 90-day
period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the consensus
committee established pursuant to section 604(a)(3) of the National
Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974
(42 U.S.C.
5304(a)(3)) shall develop and submit to the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development a proposed Federal manufactured home construction
and safety standard required under section 604(i) of such Act (as added by the
amendment made by section 3 of this Act). Notwithstanding section 604(a)(5)(B)
of such Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall issue a final
order promulgating the standard required by such section 604(i) not later than
the expiration of the 90-day period beginning upon receipt by the Secretary of
the proposed standard developed and submitted by the consensus
committee.
SEC. 5. Study.
The Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development shall conduct a study regarding conditioning the applicability of
the requirement under the amendment made by section 3 of this Act (relating to
supplying weather radios in manufactured homes) on the geographic location at
which a manufactured home is placed, but only to the extent that such
requirement applies to new manufactured homes and new site-built homes. In
conducting such study and making determinations under the study, the Secretary
shall take into consideration severe weather conditions, such as high winds and
flooding, and wind zones and other severe weather data available from the
National Weather Service. Not later than the expiration of the 18-month period
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall
complete the study and submit a report regarding the results of the study to
the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives and to the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate.
Passed the House of
Representatives December 2, 2009.
