[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 354 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 354

 To provide for disclosure of fire safety standards and measures with 
          respect to campus buildings, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 22, 2007

 Mr. Lautenberg (for himself, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Biden) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for disclosure of fire safety standards and measures with 
          respect to campus buildings, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know Act 
of 2007''.

SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE OF FIRE SAFETY OF CAMPUS BUILDINGS.

    Section 485 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1)--
                    (A) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph 
                (N);
                    (B) by striking the period at the end of 
                subparagraph (O) and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following new 
                subparagraph:
            ``(P) the fire safety report prepared by the institution 
        pursuant to subsection (h).''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(h) Disclosure of Fire Safety Standards and Measures.--
            ``(1) Annual fire safety reports required.--Each eligible 
        institution participating in any program under this title 
        shall, beginning in the first academic year that begins after 
        the date of enactment of the Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know 
        Act of 2007, and each year thereafter--
                    ``(A) prepare, publish, and distribute, through 
                appropriate publications (including the Internet) or 
                mailings, to all current students and employees, and to 
                any applicant for enrollment or employment upon 
                request, an annual fire safety report, which shall 
                contain information with respect to the campus fire 
                safety practices and standards of that institution, 
                including--
                            ``(i) a statement that identifies each 
                        student housing facility owned or controlled by 
                        the institution, and whether each such facility 
                        is equipped with a full fire sprinkler system 
                        or other fire safety systems, fire escape 
                        planning or protocols, or both;
                            ``(ii) statistics for each student housing 
                        facility concerning the occurrence of fires and 
                        unwanted and false alarms in each such 
                        facility, during the 2 preceding calendar years 
                        for which data are available;
                            ``(iii) for each such occurrence in 
                        facilities described in clauses (i) and (ii), a 
                        summary of the human injuries or deaths, 
                        structural and property damage, or combination 
                        thereof;
                            ``(iv) information regarding rules on 
                        portable electrical appliances, smoking and 
                        open flames (such as candles), regular 
                        mandatory supervised fire drills, and planned 
                        and future improvements in fire safety; and
                            ``(v) information about fire safety 
                        education and training provided to students, 
                        faculty, and staff; and
                    ``(B) submit to the Secretary a copy of the 
                statistics required to be made available under 
                subparagraph (A)(ii).
            ``(2) Fraternities, sororities, and other student groups 
        that own, control, or occupy housing facilities.--
                    ``(A) Reports by organizing bodies.--Each 
                institution participating in a program under this title 
                shall, as a condition of recognizing and permitting the 
                operation of any fraternity, sorority, or other student 
                group that is recognized by the institution and that 
                owns, controls, or occupies student housing facilities, 
                require the national organizing body of such 
                fraternity, sorority, or other student group, beginning 
                in the first academic year that begins after the date 
                of enactment of the Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know 
                Act of 2007, and each year thereafter--
                            ``(i) to collect the information described 
                        in subparagraph (A), for each building and 
                        property that contains student housing 
                        facilities and that is owned, controlled, or 
                        occupied by the fraternity, sorority, or group, 
                        respectively;
                            ``(ii) beginning in the first academic year 
                        that begins after the date of enactment of the 
                        Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know Act of 2007, 
                        and each year thereafter, to prepare, publish, 
                        and distribute, through appropriate 
                        publications (including the Internet) or 
                        mailings to all current members, and to any 
                        interested party upon request, an annual fire 
                        safety report in accordance with subparagraph 
                        (B) of this paragraph; and
                            ``(iii) to submit to the Secretary a copy 
                        of the statistics described in paragraph 
                        (1)(A)(ii) and required to be collected under 
                        clause (i) of this subparagraph.
                    ``(B) Contents of annual reports.--The annual fire 
                safety reports required under subparagraph (A)(ii) of 
                this paragraph shall contain the following:
                            ``(i) Information concerning fire safety at 
                        any student housing facilities owned or 
                        controlled by the recognized fraternity, 
                        sorority, or other student group required to be 
                        collected under subparagraph (A)(i) of this 
                        paragraph.
                            ``(ii) A statement concerning whether and 
                        how the recognized fraternity, sorority, or 
                        other student group owning, controlling, or 
                        occupying student housing facilities works with 
                        hosting academic institutions to make buildings 
                        and property owned or controlled by such 
                        fraternities, sororities, or student groups 
                        more fire safe.
            ``(3) Current information to campus community.--Each 
        institution participating in any program under this title shall 
        make, keep, and maintain a log, written in a form that can be 
        easily understood, recording all on-campus fires, including the 
        nature, date, time, and general location of each fire and all 
        unwanted and false fire alarms. All entries that are required 
        pursuant to this paragraph shall, except where disclosure of 
        such information is prohibited by law, be open to public 
        inspection, and each such institution shall make annual reports 
        to the campus community on such fires and unwanted and false 
        fire alarms in a manner that will aid the prevention of similar 
        occurrences.
            ``(4) Responsibilities of the secretary.--The Secretary 
        shall--
                    ``(A) review the statistics submitted under 
                paragraph (1)(B) and paragraph (2)(A)(iii);
                    ``(B) make such statistics submitted to the 
                Secretary available to the public; and
                    ``(C) in coordination with nationally recognized 
                fire organizations and representatives of institutions 
                of higher education, identify exemplary fire safety 
                policies, procedures, programs, and practices and 
                disseminate information to the Administrator of the 
                United States Fire Administration and make available to 
                the public information concerning those policies, 
                procedures, programs, and practices that have proven 
                effective in the reduction of campus fires.
            ``(5) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this subsection 
        shall be construed to authorize the Secretary to require 
        particular policies, procedures, programs, or practices by 
        institutions of higher education with respect to fire safety, 
        other than with respect to the collection, reporting, and 
        dissemination of information required by this subsection.
            ``(6) Definitions.--In this subsection, the term `campus' 
        has the meaning provided in subsection (f)(6).''.

SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS BY SECRETARY OF EDUCATION.

    Not later than two years after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of Education shall prepare and submit to Congress a 
report containing--
            (1) an analysis of the status of fire safety systems in 
        institutions of higher education (as that term is defined in 
        section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
        1002)), including sprinkler systems;
            (2) an analysis of the appropriate fire safety standards to 
        apply to these facilities, which the Secretary shall prepare 
        after consultation with such fire safety experts, 
        representatives of institutions of higher education, and other 
        Federal agencies as the Secretary, in the Secretary's 
        discretion, considers appropriate;
            (3) an estimate of the cost of bringing all nonconforming 
        student housing facilities up to the building codes in effect 
        at the time of the report;
            (4) recommendations from the Secretary concerning the best 
        means of meeting fire safety standards in all institutions of 
        higher education, including recommendations for methods to fund 
        the cost described in paragraph (3); and
            (5) examples of exemplary fire safety education and 
        training programs at institutions of higher education and 
        recommendations for wide adoption of similar programs among 
        institutions of higher education.
                                 <all>