[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4641]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. REED:
  S. 2818. A bill to reduce housing-related health hazards, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am introducing two bills pertaining 
to healthy housing, the Healthy Housing Council Act and the Title X 
Amendments Act. These bills seek to improve federal coordination of 
healthy housing efforts and better integrate healthy housing activities 
into the ongoing lead poisoning prevention work at the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development.
  The crisis in Flint, Michigan reaffirms a tragic reality; millions of 
Americans, including thousands of children and families in Rhode 
Island, remain at risk from lead exposure. For example, Rhode Island 
has the highest percentage of low-income children living in older 
housing, which poses health risks for these children because of the 
lead paint used in these older homes. Fortunately, Rhode Island has 
been a national leader in working to reduce lead hazards and bring down 
childhood lead poisoning rates. The number of children with elevated 
blood lead levels has been steadily declining in all areas of Rhode 
Island over the last decade, from 212 children under the age of 6 in 
2005 to 42 children in 2015. But as we have seen this year with the 
tragedy in Flint, MI, lead poisoning among children is still a huge 
problem in this country. This is unacceptable, which is why I have long 
sought to improve and maximize federal finding for lead poisoning 
prevention programs.
  The Title X Amendments Act makes important improvements to lead 
poisoning prevention programs at HUD to better serve low income 
families at risk for lead poisoning. It would provide HUD with the 
necessary authority to continue to carry out healthy housing activities 
while protecting important ongoing lead remediation efforts, allow 
grantees to improve the conditions in zero-bedroom units, and 
streamline eligibility for assistance. These are simple, yet necessary 
reforms designed to improve and expand cost-effective services, and I 
look forward to working with my colleagues to see them enacted.
  It is also vital that we continue the type of collaboration and 
coordination among Federal departments and agencies, like HUD, HHS, 
EPA, and CDC, that resulted in the Strategy for Action to Advance 
Healthy Homes. Indeed, there are many programs fragmented across 
multiple agencies that are responsible for addressing housing-related 
health hazards like lead and radon, and we should strive to improve the 
efficiency and efficacy of these efforts by ensuring that these 
agencies continue to work together.
  The Healthy Housing Council Act would establish an independent 
interagency Council on Healthy Housing in the executive branch in order 
to improve coordination, bring existing efforts out of their respective 
silos, and reduce duplication.
  The bill calls for the council to convene periodic meetings with 
experts in the public and private sectors to discuss ways to educate 
individuals and families on how to recognize housing-related health 
hazards and access the necessary services and preventive measures to 
combat these hazards. The council would also be required to hold 
biannual stakeholder meetings, maintain an updated website, and work to 
unify healthy housing data collection.
  In addition to the 23 million homes with lead-based paint hazards, 
there are nearly 6 million households with moderate or severe health 
hazards, resulting in approximately 22,600 unintentional injury and 
fire deaths and 21,000 radon-associated lung cancer deaths every year. 
These bills seek to tackle these numbers, which contribute to 
increasing health care costs for individuals and families, as well as 
for Federal, State, and local governments.
  The presence of housing-related health hazards is often overlooked 
and yet these hazards are sometimes the cause of a variety of 
preventable diseases and conditions like cancer, lead poisoning, and 
asthma. Promoting low-cost measures to eliminate subpar housing can 
make a dramatic and meaningful difference in the lives of children and 
families and help reduce health care costs. I am pleased that the 
National Center for Healthy Housing supports both of these bills and I 
look forward to working with my colleagues to move this legislation 
forward.

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