[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 108 (Monday, July 21, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H7172-H7174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TORNADO SHELTERS ACT

  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 23) to amend the Housing and Community Development Act of 
1974 to authorize communities to use community development block grant 
funds for construction of tornado-safe shelters in manufactured home 
parks, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                H.R. 23

       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 ``Tornado Shelters Act''.

     SEC. 2. CDBG ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.

       Section 105(a) of the Housing and Community Development Act 
     of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5305(a)) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (22), by striking ``and'' at the end;
       (2) in paragraph (23), by striking the period at the end 
     and inserting a semicolon; and
       (3) by inserting after paragraph (23) the following new 
     paragraph:
       ``(24) the construction or improvement of tornado-safe 
     shelters for residents of manufactured housing, and the 
     provision of assistance (including loans and grants) to 
     nonprofit and for-profit entities (including owners of 
     manufactured housing parks) for such construction or 
     improvement, except that--
       ``(A) a shelter assisted with amounts provided pursuant to 
     this paragraph may be located only in a neighborhood 
     (including a manufactured housing park) that--
       ``(i) contains not less than 20 manufactured housing units 
     that are within such proximity to the shelter that the 
     shelter is available to the residents of such units in the 
     event of a tornado;
       ``(ii) consists predominantly of persons of low and 
     moderate income; and
       ``(iii) is located within a State in which a tornado has 
     occurred during the fiscal year for which the amounts to be 
     used under this paragraph were made available or any of the 3 
     preceding fiscal years, as determined by the Secretary after 
     consultation with the Director of the Federal Emergency 
     Management Agency;

[[Page H7173]]

       ``(B) such a shelter shall comply with standards for 
     construction and safety as the Secretary, after consultation 
     with the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 
     shall provide to ensure protection from tornadoes;
       ``(C) such a shelter shall be of a size sufficient to 
     accommodate, at a single time, all occupants of manufactured 
     housing units located within the neighborhood in which the 
     shelter is located; and
       ``(D) amounts may not be used for a shelter as provided 
     under this paragraph unless there is located, within the 
     neighborhood in which the shelter is located (or, in the case 
     of a shelter located in a manufactured housing park, within 
     1,500 feet of such park), a warning siren that is operated in 
     accordance with such local, regional, or national disaster 
     warning programs or systems as the Secretary, after 
     consultation with the Director of the Federal Emergency 
     Management Agency, considers appropriate to ensure adequate 
     notice of occupants of manufactured housing located in such 
     neighborhood or park of a tornado; and''.

     SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       In addition to any amounts otherwise made available for 
     grants under title I of the Housing and Community Development 
     Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.), there is authorized to 
     be appropriated for assistance only for activities pursuant 
     to section 105(a)(24) of such Act $5,000,000 for fiscal year 
     2004.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Bachus) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus).


                             General Leave

  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on this legislation.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Alabama?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes to speak in support 
of this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank many of those responsible 
for the bill coming up today. I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio 
(Chairman Oxley), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), the chairman of 
the subcommittee. I also want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts 
(Mr. Frank), who has always been very supportive of this legislation. 
This legislation has had overwhelming, bipartisan support.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation is a response to something that every 
day, during at least 6 months out of the year, almost every day, we 
open the newspaper and we read where someone has been killed by a 
tornado. Now, we cannot prevent tornadoes from happening, but we can 
save lives when those tornadoes do happen, because the technology is 
there. The technology today, particularly on an F4, F5 tornado, the 
technology is there to give residents a 30- or 40-minute warning of a 
tornado bearing down on their community.
  Now, what many residents have when they get these warnings is they 
have a place of shelter, they have a place to go. Many residents have a 
site-built home, they go down in the basement of that home, and that 
offers protection; or they go into an interior room. Manufactured 
housing residents do not have a basement. That is pretty obvious. They 
often do not have an interior room. The Society of Civil Engineers, who 
have endorsed this bill this week, actually pointed out the fact that 
this is something that manufactured housing communities need, and they 
have endorsed this legislation.
  Because what this legislation will do is it will allow, wherever we 
have concentrations of manufactured housing, sometimes referred to as 
mobile homes, it will allow community development money to be used, and 
this is the option of the city or the county, to be used for a storm 
shelter for those residents. I have actually in the past few months 
visited two storm shelters, and they offer almost 100 percent 
protection from these storms. Coupled with the warning and the shelter, 
we should be able to reduce fatalities substantially.
  Last year, the House of Representatives passed this bill, and Senator 
Tim Johnson tried to bring it up or attempted to bring it up; he made 
efforts to bring it up in the Senate. But for whatever reason, that 
bill did not come up. Senator Johnson and many other Senators have 
joined with House Members in asking that this bill be a priority this 
year.
  Last year, when this House overwhelmingly passed this bill, I 
introduced the picture of a little girl named Whitney. Whitney was a 
resident of a manufactured house, a mobile home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 
She shared that home with her mother and her 16-month-old baby brother, 
and also a sister. When a tornado struck their home, it threw Whitney 
out of the home several hundred yards. Because it actually took hours 
and hours to find her, and she was actually mistaken for a pile of 
rubble, but an Associated Press photographer was there on the scene 
when Whitney was found and her little picture with her torn dress and 
her bloodied face went all over the United States. What a lot of people 
that saw that picture did not know is that Whitney's little brother did 
not make it through that storm. Whitney's little sister and Whitney 
spent days and weeks in a hospital recovering, but now they are home 
with their mother.
  What Whitney did not have and what a sixth of the people in the 
United States who live in manufactured housing do not have is they do 
not have a shelter from the storm.
  This storm was predicted to go through her community some 30 minutes 
before it went through her community. Her parents had a warning, but 
what they did not have is a place to hide. In fact, they were advised 
wisely: do not get in an automobile.
  So I close by simply saying, this legislation was too late for 
Whitney's little brother and Whitney's father, but it is not too late 
for millions of American families today.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
   Mr. Speaker, I am glad to join in supporting this. The gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Waters), a member of the subcommittee, worked 
collaboratively with the gentleman from Alabama. This has been an 
important cause that he has brought to our attention, and we appreciate 
that.
   I should note that one of the ways in which we were able to 
cooperate on this bill was it is coming forward under the rubric of the 
community development block grant program, so we made sure that is, in 
fact, consistent with the community development block grant program. It 
is also additional money, so it does not take away from any existing 
programs, and it is entirely worthwhile.
   I would just make two points about the broader implications of this 
bill. First of all, it is particularly for manufactured housing. 
Manufactured housing is a very important housing resource for low- and 
moderate-income homeowners and residents. And I hope that it will be a 
hallmark of this committee in a bipartisan way that we will find other 
ways to protect this important housing resource. It does not often get 
the respect it deserves, either in the culture or in the law.

                              {time}  1415

  I am determined that we will do our best.
   Second, I am glad to be here joining my Republican colleagues in 
creating a new Federal program in which new Federal money is made 
available for an important societal need.
   Now, it is not a huge amount of money for the whole country, $5 
million. It might, as the need evidences itself, go beyond that. What 
it shows us is that there are important needs in this society; and the 
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) has just eloquently sketched out 
the need for this kind of shelter to protect vulnerable people from 
these tornados.
   What we are saying is, this is a need that will not be met 
adequately for the people of this country unless the Federal Government 
creates a new category of funding and provides Federal funds for that. 
I am glad to do that because it is an important program that we are 
establishing. It is an important need that we are meeting, and as I 
said, it underlines the importance of manufactured housing and an 
appropriate Federal response to social programs.
  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. I yield to the gentleman from Alabama.
  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the gentleman and also the

[[Page H7174]]

gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis), my home State, who joined me along 
with my fellow Alabamans, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Everett) and 
the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers) in being original cosponsors of 
this bill.
   What we saw was little Whitney and any citizen that lives in 
manufactured housing is basically discriminated against in Federal law 
today because there are not funds available for mobile home shelters 
for them. Had she lived on a site-built house, the Federal Government 
would have provided money for a tornado shelter.
   One thing that we are doing with this legislation is we are going to 
allow all of our residents to be prepared for our next tornado, all our 
community, not just those that live in site-built homes.
   We need to be careful as we move forward that we do have legislation 
that does not discriminate against any of our residents. And in this 
case, manufactured housing, many of our low- and middle-income 
residents choose this as a most affordable option, but when they choose 
this option they should not be discriminated against. They ought to, 
particularly in those areas that are tornado prone, also have an 
opportunity for those programs that had been created to protect them 
from this type of disaster or to mitigate the circumstances.
   Had a shelter like this been in place in my community when this 
tornado hit, Whitney's father would be there to take care of her today. 
Whitney's little brother would be with her. Because they are not, she 
has continued to incur medical bills and her mother has continued to 
have to have assistance. And I do not want that to be the case.
   I want us to be able to offer these people protection and security, 
and this is a very affordable way to do that and it is very sound. It 
works as the recent endorsement from the American Society of Civil 
Engineers shows.
  Mr. NEY. Mr. Speaker, every year, an average of 800 tornadoes sweep 
across the United States, resulting in 80 deaths, more than 1,500 
injuries, and millions of dollars in property damage. One of nature's 
most powerful and violent storms, large tornadoes often record wind 
speeds in excess of 250 miles per hour.
  Despite rapid advances in tornado warning technologies, residents of 
manufactured housing communities often do not have adequate access to 
proper shelter. Prior to this legislation, federal monies were not 
available for tornado shelter construction within or around 
manufactured housing communities.
  H.R. 23, the ``Tornado Shelters Act,'' introduced by Congressman 
Spencer Bachus, amends section 105 of the Housing and Community 
Development Act of 1974 by authorizing communities to use CDBG monies 
to construct or improve tornado-safe shelters located in manufactured 
housing parks.
  The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is generally 
recognized as the primary vehicle for targeted community development of 
cities, counties and rural areas to principally benefit low- and 
moderate-income persons. Grantees may use the funds for housing 
activities, economic development, public facilities (such as day care 
centers or health centers), public improvements (such as street 
repairs), public services (such as social programs for elderly, youth 
or abused), urban renewal, or planning and administration.
  Shelters built under the auspices of this bill must be located in a 
neighborhood (including a manufactured housing park) that has twenty or 
more manufactured housing units, populated by persons of predominantly 
low- to moderate-income, and located in an area where a tornado 
occurred within the current or three (3) previous fiscal years. Each 
constructed shelter must comply with HUD's standards for construction 
and safety, and it must be of sufficient size to accommodate all 
residents of the manufactured housing park at one time.
  The bill further stipulates that an operational warning siren, which 
ensures adequate notice of a tornado, must be located within a 
neighborhood where the shelter is located or within 1,500 feet of a 
manufactured housing park. The final provision authorizes $5 million in 
appropriations for FY 2004.
  In light of the recent devastating tornadoes in the South and 
Midwest, this legislation is not only timely, but also pertinent. As 
many of you may know, the tornado season began in early March and 
continues through early summer. Mr. Bachus has often said that in the 
face of a tornado threat we can do two things--pray and prepare. Pray 
it won't happen again and prepare for the next line of twisters.
  While the citizens can pray, our government and this Congress can 
help them prepare. I would encourage members to support this 
legislation and I urge its final passage.
  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to support H.R. 
23--``The Tornado Shelters Act,'' introduced by my Colleague, the 
Gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Bachus.
  The legislation would permit the use of CDBG (Community Development 
Block Grant) funds to construct or enhance tornado shelters in 
manufactured housing communities or for residents of manufactured 
housing.
  Mr. Speaker, while my area of the country suffers outbreaks of 
tornadoes, it is far from ``Tornado Alley'' located in other parts of 
the Midwest and the Deep South. Therefore, I understand and appreciate 
the urgency to pass this legislation.
  As many of you may know, the tornado season started in early March 
and usually continues through July.
  In this calendar year-2003, 54 people have died from 18 tornadoes, 
with the two worst in Tennessee and Missouri on May 4th with 11 and 8 
fatalities, respectfully.
  In 2002, 55 people died from tornadoes.
  The biggest outbreak of tornadoes occurred on April 3 and 4, 1974, 
and 147 tornadoes touching down in 13 U.S. states. The outbreak killed 
310 in the U.S., 8 in Canada, with 5,454 U.S. injuries and 23 hurt in 
Canada. Forty-eight of the tornadoes were killers. Seven produced 
damage rated F5--the maximum possible--and 23 more were rated F4. This 
was one of only two outbreaks with over 100 confirmed tornadoes, the 
other being with Hurricane Beulah in 1967 (115 tornadoes).
  The most destructive tornado in history was the Bridge Creek-Moore-
Oklahoma City-Midwest City, OK, tornado of May 3, 1999, with over $1 
billion in damage, both in absolute amount and normalized to 1999 
dollars.
  Community tornado shelters are excellent ideas for apartment 
complexes, schools, mobile home parks, factories, office complexes and 
other facilities where large groups of people live, work or study.
  I am struck by the words of my colleague from Alabama, the site of 
far too many of these killer storms. Mr. Bachus says that in the face 
of the tornado threat we can do two things--pray and prepare. Pray it 
won't happen again, and prepare for the next line of twisters.
  While the citizens can pray, our government can help us prepare. This 
common-sense legislation would allow communities to build or improve 
tornado shelters in manufactured housing communities.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation and thank Mr. Bachus for his 
leadership.
  I urge passage of this legislation.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests 
for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
   The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Whitfield). The question is on the 
motion offered by the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) that the 
House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 23, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________