[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13484-13485]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CHINESE DRYWALL

  Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, there has been an important development in 
the effort to bring fairness for the victims of poisonous drywall that 
was imported from China. Drywall sourced from China was found to emit 
dangerous chemicals that make people sick and damage metal components 
of air conditioning and other electronics, among other effects. In 
Louisiana, the defective drywall came at a particularly troubling time. 
Just as we were starting to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 
the defective Chinese drywall was imported in large quantities. Many 
homeowners returned after their houses were rebuilt only to soon find 
them to be inhabitable yet again. We are still fighting today almost 9 
years after the storm to bring justice to the affected families.
  Some other companies, specifically German-owned entities, that 
supplied defected drywall from China have participated in the legal 
process and made settlements that have been helpful to homeowners. 
However, the Chinese company Taishan, a state-owned entity, refuses to 
take responsibility for its harmful products and continues to disregard 
U.S. law and our court system. If the homeowners' contractors got 
drywall from Taishan, they have thus far been out of luck in seeking 
fair compensation as Taishan continues to ignore our court system.
  In February 2014, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New 
Orleans upheld a $2.7 million default judgment requiring Taishan to 
cover the cost of removing its defective drywall. Even after losing the 
appeal, Taishan let the deadline pass for an appeal to the Supreme 
Court, meaning the case was back in the U.S. District Court for the 
Eastern District of Louisiana and Judge Eldon Fallon. Earlier this 
month, Taishan disregarded our legal system and refused to appear in 
court proceedings in this case. Judge Fallon ruled that Taishan was in 
contempt of court for failing to appear to address the default judgment 
entered against the company. He ordered Taishan to pay $15,000 in 
attorney's fees of the plaintiffs and $40,000 in penalties. Most 
importantly, his ruling banned Taishan and any of its affiliates or 
subsidiaries from doing business in the United States unless and until 
it participates in the court's process on this ongoing case. To help 
ensure enforcement of the order, the court sent notice of its ruling to 
the Federal Government.
  I applaud the court's effort to protect the integrity of our legal 
system in taking action to force the Chinese company to comply with the 
law and the court's orders. If state-owned Chinese companies such as 
Taishan want to do business in the United States, they must follow the 
law and must honor our legal system. If they will not honor commitments 
and work to resolve claims, how can we expect any Americans to trust 
any business relations with or products from Chinese government 
controlled companies? Our government must insist that Taishan return to 
the table and participate in the legal process.
  To help stop this situation from happening again, I worked to pass 
into law bipartisan legislation to stop unsafe drywall from entering 
U.S. markets by

[[Page 13485]]

ensuring that the Consumer Product Safety Commission follows a 
voluntary consensus health and safety standard. Enacted in 2013, this 
law also ensures that unsafe drywall will not be reused by requiring 
that it be labeled and that its manufacturers are identified. I 
specifically offered an amendment to focus the emphasis of the 
legislation on high sulfur content, the main damaging element emitted 
from the defective drywall, and to make the origin of the drywall 
traceable to the manufacturer. This law protects homeowners going 
forward, but it cannot help the homeowners still looking for justice 
now. We know that the harmful drywall came from China, and the remedy 
for these homeowners is for Taishan to follow the court's order, come 
to the table, and reach a fair settlement.

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