[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2787 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2787

  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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 20, 2007

   Mr. Ellsworth (for himself, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Moore of Kansas) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  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 2007''.

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) according to the Economic Statistics Report from the 
        National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in April 2006 
        (5th Edition), residents of mobile homes remain at risk from 
        tornados, as over 40 percent of resulting fatalities occur in 
        mobile homes, and the fatality rate for residents of mobile 
        homes is more than 10 times greater than that for residents of 
        permanent homes;
            (4) 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;
            (5) the operator of a mobile home community should be 
        encouraged to provide a safe place of shelter for park 
        residents or a plan for the evacuation of park residents to a 
        safe place of shelter within a reasonable distance of the park 
        for use by park residents in times of severe weather, including 
        tornadoes and high winds; and local municipalities should be 
        encouraged to require approval of these plans;
            (6) twice each year, when Americans change their clocks for 
        daylight savings, the operator of a mobile home community 
        should be encouraged to provide a written reminder to the 
        owners of all manufactured homes in the mobile home community 
        to replace the batteries in all weather radios and smoke 
        detectors contained in their manufactured homes; and
            (7) 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:
    ``(h) 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 protection.--Any reminder, assistance, or 
        instructions provided by an operator of a mobile home community 
        concerning the function of a weather radio or smoke detector 
        contained in a manufactured home shall not subject the 
        operator, an owner or employee of the mobile home community, or 
        the mobile home manufacturer to liability for the functionality 
        of that weather radio or smoke detector.''.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT.

    The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall establish the 
Federal manufactured home construction and safety standard required by 
the amendment made by section 3 of this Act by order in accordance with 
section 604(b)(5) of the National Manufactured Housing Construction and 
Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5403(b)(5)), which shall take 
effect as provided in section 604(c) of such Act.
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