II 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2850 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES December 8, 2009 Mr. Vitter introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To permit the use of Federal funds from the Community Development Block Grant Program to be used to remediate damage from the installation of tainted drywall, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Chinese Drywall Homeowners Assistance Act.

2.

Use of Federal funds to remediate damage done by tainted drywall

(a)

Road Home Program

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any Federal funds provided to the Road Home Program created by the Louisiana Recovery Authority and funded by amounts made available to the State of Louisiana from the community development block grant program under title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.) may be used to provide any resident of the State of Louisiana, whether a participant or nonparticipant in the Road Home Program, with such monetary assistance as may be necessary to repair or replace tainted drywall. (b)

CDBG amounts

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, including any provision under title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.), the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development may permit any State or unit of general local government receiving assistance pursuant to section 106 of such Act to use such assistance to provide homeowners residing in such State or unit of general local government with such monetary assistance as may be necessary to repair or replace tainted drywall. (c)

Definition

As used in this section, the term tainted drywall means drywall that— (1)was manufactured in the People's Republic of China; (2)was imported into the United States during the period beginning on January 1, 2004, and ending on December 31, 2008; and (3)contains elevated levels of sulphur or strontium.