[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6068 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6068

To establish a grant program to assist States in inspecting hotel rooms 
                             for bed bugs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 15, 2008

   Mr. Butterfield (for himself, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Payne, Ms. 
  Matsui, and Mr. Jefferson) introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish a grant program to assist States in inspecting hotel rooms 
                             for bed bugs.

    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 ``Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 
2008''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) on February 12, 2008, a thorough inspection of a hotel 
        in Nashua, New Hampshire, found that 16 of 117 rooms were 
        infested with bedbugs;
            (2) cimex lectularius, commonly known as bed bugs, travel 
        through the ventilation systems in multi-unit establishments 
        causing exponential infestations;
            (3) female bedbugs can lay up to 5 eggs in a day and 500 
        during a lifetime;
            (4) bedbug populations in the United States have increased 
        by 500 percent in the past few years;
            (5) in 2004, New York City had 377 bedbug violations and 
        from July to November of 2005, a 5-month span, there were 449 
        violations reported in the city, an alarming increase in 
        infestations over a short period of time;
            (6) in a study of 700 hotel rooms between 2002 and 2006, 25 
        percent of hotels were found to be in need of bedbug treatment; 
        and
            (7) bed bugs possess all of the necessary prerequisites for 
        being capable of passing diseases from one host to another.

SEC. 3. BED BUG INSPECTION GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) Administration; Amount.--The Secretary of Commerce, in 
cooperation with the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, may provide 
grants to an eligible State to assist such State in carrying out the 
inspections described in subsection (c). The grants shall be in amounts 
determined by the Secretary, taking into consideration the relative 
needs of the State.
    (b) Eligibility.--A State is eligible for a grant under this Act if 
the State has established a program whereby not fewer than 20 percent 
of rooms in lodging facilities in such State are inspected annually for 
cimex lectularius, commonly know as the bed bug. The Federal share of 
funding for such a program shall not exceed 80 percent.
    (c) Use of Grants.--A State may use a grant received under this Act 
to--
            (1) conduct inspections of lodging facilities for cimex 
        lectularius, including transportation, lodging, and meal 
        expenses for inspectors;
            (2) train inspection personnel; and
            (3) educate the proprietors and staff of lodging 
        establishments about methods to prevent and eradicate cimex 
        lectularius.
    (d) Application.--To receive a grant under this Act, an eligible 
State shall submit an application to the Secretary of Commerce in such 
form and containing such information as the Secretary shall determine.
    (e) Definition of Lodging Facility.--For purposes of this Act and 
the requirement under subsection (b) for State programs receiving 
funding under this Act, the term ``lodging facility'' means any 
individual hotel, motel, or inn that makes available for commercial 
lodging more than 10 individual rooms.
    (f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 through 2012 to 
the Secretary of Commerce for the grants authorized under this Act.

SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    The Secretary of Commerce shall transmit a report to Congress not 
later than 3 years after the issuance of the first grant authorized 
under this Act, which shall contain an assessment of the effectiveness 
of the grant program.
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