S.Amdt. 709

SA 709. Mr. STRANGE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2018 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. __. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON FIRE PROTECTION IN DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE FACILITIES.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) A 2009 Consumer Product Safety Commission study found a
full 370,000 residential fires are suppressed by portable
fire extinguishers annually.
(2) Throughout the United States, of the 48,460 fires in
buildings equipped with sprinklers from 2007 to 2011, 40,440,
or 83 percent, never grew large enough to activate
sprinklers, indicating many fires are successfully suppressed
by portable fire extinguishers.
(3) Section 9-17.1 of the Unified Facilities Criteria 3-
600-01 changes the Department of Defense building code by
stating, ``General purpose portable fire extinguishers are
not required when the Facility is provided with complete
automatic sprinkler protection and a fire alarm system in
accordance with this UFC.''
(4) This new language is a departure from national model
fire codes, and is also a significant change from the last
Unified Criteria governing portable extinguishers.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) portable fire extinguishers are essential to the safety
of members of the Armed Forces and their families;
(2) the current United Facilities Criteria provides members
of the Armed Forces, their families, and other Department of
Defense personnel with less fire protection than that of
civilian counterparts by deviating from fire safety codes
used across the country and not requiring portable
extinguishers on military installations;
(3) United Facilities Criteria 3-600-01, Section 4-9, dated
September 26, 2006, clearly keeps Department of Defense
Facilities in line with the national and international
standards for fire safety; and
(4) the Secretary of Defense should amend current United
Facilities Criteria Section 9-17.1 to reflect the standards
established by United Facilities Criteria 3-600-01, Section
4-9, dated September 26, 2006.
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