Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2008

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6309) to amend the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 to define environmental intervention blood lead level and establish additional requirements for certain lead hazard screens, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise to strongly urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6309, the Lead-Safe Housing Act of 2008.

Let me start by thanking Chairman Frank, Subcommittee Chair Waters, and Housing Subcommittee Ranking Member Shelley Capito, for all of their work on this legislation to protect low-income children in public housing from lead exposure. I also want to thank the Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Dingell for their work on this bill as well.

H.R. 6309 requires that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, update its blood lead level intervention regulations to reflect the level used by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The legislation simply requires HUD to update its blood lead regulations from the current 20 micrograms per deciliter to 10 micrograms per deciliter. The Center for Disease Control, the CDC, has that as their recommended threshold. Or if the CDC updates their standard to a lower number, that lower number.

Madam Speaker, this legislation is long overdue. The CDC, in 1991, 17 years ago, determined that a blood lead level of 10 micrograms per deciliter was the threshold for potential damage in children. Lead poisoning causes destructive physical, intellectual and behavior problems, including weight loss, decrease in IQ, hyperactivity, lethargy, and even sometimes, Madam Speaker, death. In fact, a 4-year- old young man swallowed a lead charm and died in my district a couple years ago.

Lead poisoning is one of the largest environmental hazards affecting children in America today, and it is also one of the most preventable hazards. Madam Speaker, our most vulnerable children often face a greater risk of being exposed to lead. Children of color, children from low-income families are more likely to reside in older homes, and these homes are much more likely to contain lead paint.

Thanks to congressional action in the 1990s, our country has seen significant progress in reduction of children exposed to lead. Between 1991 and 1994, 4.4 percent of children under six, or more than 800,000 children, had unacceptably high levels of lead in their blood of 10 micrograms per deciliter or higher.

The CDC now estimates that this number has dropped to 1.6 percent of children or more than 300,000 children. That's progress, but progress is not enough. Though this is progress, 300,000 children are still 300,000 too many; 1 is too many.

Madam Speaker, my legislation is just one attempt to tackle the problem. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to some day eradicate this problem of elevated blood lead levels in children. This legislation is supported by numerous organizations from the Children's Defense Fund to the Sierra Club.

Madam Speaker, let me just note that challenging and reducing childhood lead exposure will help our society lower the number of children who have reduce IQ because of this exposure, reduced hyperactivity, reduce children experiencing impulse control, and all of these things have implications for our juvenile court system and our adult court system, not to mention shutting off, closing down the tremendous potential that is locked up in every child.

Madam Speaker, with that I reserve the balance of my time.

Let me also thank the gentleman from California. Madam Speaker, it's wonderful when we can come together on both sides of the aisle to protect our children. In fact, one of the most important things we can do is to protect community and children, and so I am honored to be able to share the floor with the gentleman tonight.

With that, Madam Speaker, let me just thank all of the community groups that came forward, including Sierra Club, Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, and many others who have come to make this moment possible.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6309 the ``Lead Safe Housing for Kids Act''. First, I would like to thank my distinguished colleague, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, for introducing this important legislation. This bill will amend the ``Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992'' by setting the environmental intervention level for lead to 10 micrograms per deciliter. Its purpose is to enact stricter provisions concerning the hazards resulting from lead-based paint in households. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this act.

The ``Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act'' is important because of its potential to ensure

greater protection for children. Children are most at risk of suffering from the toxicity of lead paint. Lead is a dangerous substance, especially so for children under the age of six, who are only beginning the process of developing their bodies and brains. Lead paint can cause nervous system damage, loss of hearing, stunted growth, severe kidney damage, and can even disrupt the development of the brain and the faculty of cognition.

Lead-contaminated household dust, resulting from lead paint is the primary cause of lead poisoning in children throughout the United States. Though the number of children in the United States with dangerous levels of lead has dropped from 13.5 million in 1978, roughly 300,000 children still have unsafe blood lead levels that are in excess of 10 micrograms per deciliter. 300 thousand, a number equaling half of the population of Texas District 18, are currently at a distinct risk of suffering from lead poisoning. Indeed, this is a major problem.

Of the $43.4 billion spent in the United States annually on pediatric environmental disease, a great majority goes to combating and treating childhood lead poisoning. It is because of this that we must act now in putting forth more stringent testing requirements to combat the grave danger posed by lead paint.

Upon enactment of the act, the HUD will have 90 days to comply with the new environmental intervention blood lead level of at or above 10 micrograms of per deciliter, the point at which the CDC has found cause for concern. This bill will save countless children from suffering from the myriad ailments that come hand in hand with lead paint.

The tragedies of these children and others have exposed the fundamental problem which this bill addresses. For too long there has been no clear federally mandated standard to indicate excess blood lead levels in households, or to require action. This bill will go far to ensure that the children of our Nation are able to enjoy good health, by making certain that all houses become lead safe.

Recently I amended H.R. 2352, the ``School Safety Enhancement Act of 2007'', which sought to enhance the safety of our elementary schools, secondary schools, and institutions of higher learning, by increasing the amount of money available for school safety. It is critical especially that we make funds available for poor communities, and specifically to require the creation of a tip hotline for school officials, parents, and students, to report the existence of hazards and chemicals. I also provided amendments that would require institutions to create a safety plan, dealing with potential terror, chemical, or otherwise hazardous situations. These concerns for the safety of children in schools are similar to those concerns that I have for the wellbeing of children in their homes. In both situations, I believe children should be free from the dangers presented by hazardous materials and situations, including the threat of lead paint.

As the safety of children should be critical to all Americans, I urge my colleagues to support this act to protect our Nation's children and our Nation's future from harm's way.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 6309, the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2008, designed to address the serious health hazards that high levels of lead have on children in their home environment.

In 1992 the Congress passed the landmark residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act to address what was at the time an epidemic of childhood lead poisoning. In conjunction with Federal efforts to limit the use of leaded gasoline and lead in food and juice cans and in drinking water pipes, this law has been remarkably effective in reducing the incidence of childhood lead poisoning. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report, Healthy People 2010, the decline in childhood lead poisoning in the United States represents a major public health success.

The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act directed HUD to establish regulations for the evaluation of lead hazards. In its regulation, referred to as the Lead-Safe Housing Rule, HUD established an environmental intervention blood level of 20 micrograms per deciliter for a single test or 15 to 19 micrograms per deciliter for two tests taken at least 3 months apart.

H.R. 6309 will require HUD to issue new regulations that adopt the level of 10 micrograms per deciliter. Eliminating lead exposure greater than 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood among children by the year 2010 is one of the national health objectives established by the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Mr. Ellison is to be commended for his commitment to strengthen the definition of a child's elevated blood lead level, and I recommend my colleagues support this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam 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.

Madam Speaker, I want to extend my appreciation to the gentleman from Massachusetts, Chairman Frank, for his cooperation in working out issues related to the bill's definition of ``elevated intervention blood lead level''. I also commend him for his help in maintaining the relationship between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in carrying out the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, as well as preserving the respective roles of the health-based agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in making recommendations regarding the environmental intervention blood lead level, and the EPA in establishing that level under section 403 of the Toxic Substances Control Act.

I have strong concerns, however, about a provision that was not in the original bill and was added during the Financial Services committee process. This provision would only provide the benefits of the new protective blood lead level recommended by the CDC in the bill to children, including children in public housing

agencies, in those instances in which the Federal Government pays for the cost of compliance. I doubt whether the Federal resources budgeted or appropriated will ever be adequate to protect all children who need to be protected from exposure to lead-based paint at the recommended CDC level. All children should have the same level of health protection from lead hazards. This level of health protection should not depend on where a child lives.