[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 170 (Sunday, December 30, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H7448-H7450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DRYWALL SAFETY ACT OF 2012

  Mr. TERRY. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the 
Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 4212) to prevent the introduction 
into commerce of unsafe drywall, to ensure the manufacturer of drywall 
is readily identifiable, to ensure that problematic drywall removed 
from homes is not reused, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the Senate amendment is as follows:

       Senate amendment:
       Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
     following:

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Drywall Safety Act of 
     2012''.

     SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the Secretary of Commerce should insist that the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China, which has 
     ownership interests in the companies that manufactured and 
     exported problematic drywall to the United States, facilitate 
     a meeting between the companies and representatives of the 
     United States Government on remedying homeowners that have 
     problematic drywall in their homes; and
       (2) the Secretary of Commerce should insist that the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China direct the 
     companies that manufactured and exported problematic drywall 
     to submit to jurisdiction in United States Federal Courts and 
     comply with any decisions issued by the Courts for homeowners 
     with problematic drywall.

     SEC. 3. DRYWALL LABELING REQUIREMENT.

       (a)Labeling Requirement.--Beginning 180 days after the date 
     of the enactment of this Act, the gypsum board labeling 
     provisions of standard ASTM C1264-11 of ASTM International, 
     as in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, shall be treated as a rule promulgated by the 
     Consumer Product Safety Commission under section 14(c) of the 
     Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2063(c)).
       (b)Revision of Standard.--If the gypsum board labeling 
     provisions of the standard referred to in subsection (a) are 
     revised on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
     ASTM International shall notify the Commission of such 
     revision no later than 60 days after final approval of the 
     revision by ASTM International. The revised provisions shall 
     be treated as a rule promulgated by the Commission under 
     section 14(c) of such Act (15 U.S.C. 2063(c)), in lieu of the 
     prior version, effective 180 days after the Commission is 
     notified of the revision (or such later date as the 
     Commission considers appropriate), unless within 90 days 
     after receiving that notice the Commission determines that 
     the revised provisions do not adequately identify gypsum 
     board by manufacturer and month and year of manufacture, in 
     which case the Commission shall continue to enforce the prior 
     version.

     SEC. 4. SULFUR CONTENT IN DRYWALL STANDARD.

       (a)Rule on Sulfur Content in Drywall Required.--Except as 
     provided in subsection (c), not later than 2 years after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act, the Consumer Product 
     Safety Commission shall promulgate a final rule pertaining to 
     drywall manufactured or imported for use in the United States 
     that limits sulfur content to a level not associated with 
     elevated rates of corrosion in the home.
       (b)Rule Making; Consumer Product Safety Standard.--A rule 
     under subsection (a)--
       (1) shall be promulgated in accordance with section 553 of 
     title 5, United States Code; and
       (2) shall be treated as a consumer product safety rule 
     promulgated under section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety 
     Act (15 U.S.C. 2058).
       (c)Exception.--
       (1)Voluntary standard.--Subsection (a) shall not apply if 
     the Commission determines that--
       (A) a voluntary standard pertaining to drywall manufactured 
     or imported for use in the United States limits sulfur 
     content to a level not associated with elevated rates of 
     corrosion in the home;
       (B) such voluntary standard is or will be in effect not 
     later than two years after the date of enactment of this Act; 
     and
       (C) such voluntary standard is developed by Subcommittee 
     C11.01 on Specifications and Test Methods for Gypsum Products 
     of ASTM International.
       (2)Federal register.--Any determination made under 
     paragraph (1) shall be published in the Federal Register.
       (d)Treatment of Voluntary Standard for Purposes of 
     Enforcement.--If the Commission determines that a voluntary 
     standard meets the conditions in subsection (c)(1), the 
     sulfur content limit in such voluntary standard shall be 
     treated as a consumer product safety rule promulgated under 
     section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2058) 
     beginning on the date that is the later of--
       (1) 180 days after publication of the Commission's 
     determination under subsection (c); or
       (2) the effective date contained in the voluntary standard.
       (e)Revision of Voluntary Standard.--If the sulfur content 
     limit of a voluntary standard that met the conditions of 
     subsection (c)(1) is subsequently revised, the organization 
     responsible for the standard shall notify the Commission no 
     later than 60 days after final approval of the revision. The 
     sulfur content limit of the revised voluntary standard shall 
     become enforceable as a Commission rule promulgated under 
     section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 
     2058), in lieu of the prior version, effective 180 days after 
     the Commission is notified of the revision (or such later 
     date as the Commission considers appropriate), unless within 
     90 days after receiving that notice the Commission determines 
     that the sulfur content limit of the revised voluntary 
     standard does not meet the requirements of subsection 
     (c)(1)(A), in which case the Commission shall continue to 
     enforce the prior version.
       (f)Future Rulemaking.--The Commission, at any time 
     subsequent to publication of the consumer product safety rule 
     required by subsection (a) or a determination under 
     subsection (c), may initiate a rulemaking in accordance with 
     section 553 of title 5, United States Code, to modify the 
     sulfur content limit or to include any provision relating 
     only to the composition or characteristics of drywall that 
     the Commission determines is reasonably necessary to protect 
     public health

[[Page H7449]]

     or safety. Any rule promulgated under this subsection shall 
     be treated as a consumer product safety rule promulgated 
     under section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 
     2058).

     SEC. 5. REVISION OF REMEDIATION GUIDANCE FOR DRYWALL DISPOSAL 
                   REQUIRED.

       Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, the Consumer Product Safety Commission shall revise 
     its guidance entitled ``Remediation Guidance for Homes with 
     Corrosion from Problem Drywall'' to specify that problematic 
     drywall removed from homes pursuant to the guidance should 
     not be reused or used as a component in production of new 
     drywall.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Nebraska (Mr. Terry) and the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Hochul) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska.


                             General Leave

  Mr. TERRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
insert extraneous material in the Record on H.R. 4212.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Nebraska?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. TERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4212, an 
important bipartisan bill to help fight the problem of defective 
Chinese drywall which hit many families as a second plague when their 
home was destroyed by a hurricane or other disaster and then rebuilt 
using contaminated drywall from China.
  The House bill, which passed by voice vote last summer, attacks the 
problem in three ways:
  First, it directs the Secretary of Commerce to engage Chinese leaders 
and push for the manufacturers of the contaminated drywall to step up 
and take responsibility for the damages caused by their shoddy product;
  Second, the bill requires all drywall manufacturers in the future to 
label their product with their name and the date of manufacture. The 
lack of such basic identifying information was a major problem for the 
homeowners who were stuck with contaminated Chinese drywall but could 
not determine which manufacturer produced it;
  Third, and finally, the House bill requires the Consumer Product 
Safety Commission to restrict elemental sulfur in drywall unless 
industry voluntarily adopts an acceptable limit first. Compliance with 
such a limit would be easy to check at the ports or elsewhere using 
simple handheld devices.
  Mr. Speaker, the Senate amendment before us today preserves all of 
these key aspects of the House bill, making only a few minor changes. 
Notably, the Senate amendment provides that the CPSC may only enforce a 
voluntary sulfur limit if it is adopted by a specified standard-setting 
body. This responds to a concern that the voluntary sulfur limit be a 
true consensus standard; that is, the product of an open process that 
allows for participation of industry and consumers alike.
  Mr. Speaker, the Senate amendment does not undercut the House-passed 
version of the bill, nor does it add any unnecessary government 
regulation. Therefore, I strongly urge the adoption of H.R. 4212.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. HOCHUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise to speak about the amended version of H.R. 4212, the Drywall 
Safety Act of 2012 returned to this Chamber by the Senate.
  The House approved its own version of H.R. 4212 this past September 
by a voice vote. That version was the result of bipartisan negotiations 
that involved the sponsors of this bill, Mr. Rigell of Virginia and Mr. 
Deutch of Florida, along with the leadership from both sides of the 
aisle of the Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on 
Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade.
  I believe the House produced a good bill that met Mr. Rigell's and 
Mr. Deutch's goal of getting the U.S. Government to take action 
regarding a problematic drywall situation.
  The Senate version we are considering today retains significant 
portions of the House language, so I intend to vote in favor of what 
the Senate has sent back to us. Just like the previously approved House 
version, this Senate version requires that all new drywall be marked 
with a permanent label that can be used to identify who manufactured a 
particular sheet of drywall and when it was manufactured.
  A major problem many homeowners experienced was that they didn't know 
who made the drywall in their homes or when it was made. The labeling 
requirement should make it easier to pin down exactly who is 
responsible for producing any given sheet of drywall.
  In addition, just like the previously approved House version, the 
Senate version requires all drywall used in the United States to be 
subject to a sulfur content limit. After extensive investigation by the 
CPSC, sulfur was the element found to be associated with the awful odor 
and metal corrosion homeowners were experiencing.
  The Senate version specifies the American Society for Testing and 
Metals, or ASTM, international standard for gypsum board labeling as 
the labeling standard that must be complied with. The House version did 
not pick a particular voluntary standard.

                              {time}  1720

  Instead, CPSC would have specified the industry-generated voluntary 
standard to be complied with or, failing that, write its own rule on 
the matter. The Senate version also specifically grants responsibility 
for the standard on sulfur content to an ASTM committee. Both of these 
changes are made because one trade association believed that, under the 
House version, the CPSC could rely on a voluntary standard that was not 
developed through a process with safeguards for due process, the airing 
of diverse views, and consensus decisionmaking. There's not one 
instance that anyone can point to where the CPSC has relied on a 
voluntary industry standard that was not produced through a process 
that involved due process, the airing of diverse views, and consensus 
decisionmaking.
  In addition to referencing the ASTM voluntary standard-setting body 
twice, the Senate tweaked the future rulemaking section. The House 
granted CPSC authority to ``reduce'' the sulfur content limit or set 
limits regarding the composition or characteristics of drywall that are 
reasonably necessary to protect public health or safety. We granted 
this authority in case later down the road it becomes apparent that 
there are other problems associated with drywall that we have not yet 
identified. The Senate's version replaces the word ``reduce'' with 
``modify,'' so the CPSC has the authority to modify the sulfur content 
limit. The word ``modify'' encompasses reducing the limit, so we are 
willing to live with this change.
  I continue to support this bill despite these changes, because the 
time to act has long past. As far back as late 2008, consumers have 
complained about homes that smelled like rotten eggs, health concerns 
that included irritated and itchy eyes and skin, breathing problems, 
asthma attacks, persistent coughs, bloody and running noses, and 
recurring headaches. Complaints also included reports of blackened and 
corroded metal components in the home. The CPSC received nearly 4,000 
such complaints from residents in 43 States who believed these 
conditions related to the presence of Chinese drywall in their homes. 
Most of these complaints were concentrated in the South, where there 
was a construction boom in 2006 and 2007 due to hurricanes in 2004 and 
2005.
  To help bring some relief to these homeowners and to reduce the 
chance of something like this ever happening again, this legislation 
does a few other things in addition to the labeling and sulfur content 
requirements:
  It asks the Secretary of Commerce to engage the Chinese Government to 
prod those companies that exported problematic drywall to the United 
States--some of which are partly owned by the Chinese Government--to 
meet with U.S. officials about providing some sort of remedy to 
homeowners affected by this defective product;
  The bill also asks the Secretary of Commerce to engage the Chinese 
Government to try to get the government to direct these companies to 
submit to the jurisdiction of our courts and comply with judgments that 
have been entered against them;
  It also calls on the CPSC to revise guidance it published on the 
removal of

[[Page H7450]]

problematic drywall from homes to specify that this drywall should not 
be reused or put back into the drywall production stream. Once this 
drywall is removed from one home, we need to make sure it does not end 
up in another.
  Despite issues with why H.R. 4212 is back here on the House floor, 
the Democratic leadership of the Energy and Commerce Committee and its 
Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, and I along with 
them, support this bill and urge my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TERRY. At this time I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Rigell), who's the lead Republican sponsor. His dogged 
leadership on this is why it's back on the House floor again.
  Mr. RIGELL. I thank Chairman Terry very much for yielding and my 
friend and colleague, the gentlelady from New York, for your support of 
this good bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Drywall Safety Act of 
2012, as amended. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on really what 
is much-needed and commonsense legislation that's going to come before 
the House tonight.
  For nearly 4 years, families across the country have suffered from 
the harmful effects of defective Chinese-manufactured drywall. They're 
friends and neighbors, and they're families, Mr. Speaker, who worked 
hard and saved and really set out for that classic American Dream to 
own their own home or to finish their retirement years in a home, and 
yet that dream turned into a literal nightmare when their home was 
filled with a mysterious and foul rotten egg type of odor. I've been in 
these homes. It completely makes the home uninhabitable. It takes all 
the copper wiring in the home and basically turns it into black soot. 
They have to replace the compressors on the air conditioners. And even 
worse is that their health deteriorates.
  They turn first to the builders. The builders are not covered by 
their insurance. Some were able to help out the homeowners and renovate 
the home on their own, but many are not able to do that, and some 
builders have gone out of business. They turned then to the 
manufacturer of the contaminated drywall in China, but really have no 
recourse there. It's a profoundly sad situation where Americans, 
through no fault of their own, are experiencing bankruptcy and terrible 
financial problems.
  But tonight we have an opportunity to do what's right and to stand 
with our friends and neighbors and pass this legislation. It will hold 
China responsible in no uncertain terms for failing to require their 
manufacturers to rightly compensate Americans who have been damaged and 
victimized by those contaminated products.
  We express the undivided sense of Congress, Republicans and Democrats 
working together, that we're going to make sure that China is held 
accountable for what they've done here. It requires labeling on all the 
drywall products to make sure that we can find out who's responsible 
for the manufacturer of each and every piece of drywall that's 
manufactured; it will limit the amount of sulfur in the drywall, which 
was the cause of all of this; and, as has been pointed out by my 
colleague from New York, it's a voluntary standard as opposed to just 
more massive government intervention. I think that's the right path to 
go.
  So I thank my friends and colleagues from both sides of the aisle for 
making this possible. The underlying legislation passed the House 
unanimously in September. The amendment that has been made, I think, is 
very modest. I especially want to thank my friend and colleague from 
Florida, Mr. Deutch, for working with me as cochair of the Chinese 
Drywall Caucus. I thank the chairman for yielding and for your support 
on this piece of legislation.
  Ms. HOCHUL. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. TERRY. Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me make one very important 
point. Republicans and Democrats alike are united on this important 
health and safety issue. I urge all Members to pass this amendment 
today and get the needed consumer protections in place.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry) that the House suspend the rules 
and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill, H.R. 4212.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Ms. HOCHUL. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

                          ____________________