[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 320 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 320

  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

                            January 8, 2009

 Mr. Ellsworth (for himself, Mr. Bachus, Mr. Moore of Kansas, and Ms. 
   Granger) 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 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.
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