Encouraging banks and mortgage servicers to work with families affected by contaminated drywall and to consider adjustments to payment schedules on their home mortgages that take into account the financial burdens of responding to the presence of such drywall.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I'd like to thank my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Nye) for introducing this legislation to encourage financial and lending institutions to work with homeowners affected by toxic drywall. I would also like to thank the chairman and ranking member of the Financial Services Committee for bringing this resolution to the floor.

As of Friday, November 20, 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Commission had received nearly 2,100 complaints from homeowners in 32 States and the District of Columbia. The Commonwealth of Virginia and particularly the Hampton Roads region has been hit hard, and many homeowners are facing significant health problems and financial ruin because of the presence of toxic drywall in their homes.

The complaints to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which began sometime in 2006, include a rotten egg smell within the home; health concerns such as irritated and itchy eyes and skin; difficulty in breathing; persistent cough; runny noses; recurrent headaches, sinus infections, nose bleeds, and asthma attacks; and blackened and corroded metal components in electrical systems and air conditioning units.

In October, I toured the homes of several constituents affected by the toxic drywall in the Hollymeade subdivision in Newport News and saw firsthand how toxic drywall has put the health and financial well-being of numerous families at risk. I met with these folks again last week to be updated on their current predicament. These homeowners, many of whom served or who are serving our country in the Armed Forces, cannot afford to carry a mortgage on a home that is uninhabitable and make arrangements to pay rent or pay a mortgage on a second home to keep their families safe. Many of these families are juggling the burdens of having a deployed spouse or a spouse preparing for deployment and an additional financial burden such as a move out of an impacted home, foreclosure, or loss of insurance coverage. All of these would be devastating to these families.

This resolution encourages banks to allow for a temporary forbearance without penalty on payments on their home mortgages. This would give homeowners the time they need to work out a more permanent solution. My office is currently working with seven homeowners who are seeking assistance from their lenders.

Again, I would like to thank my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Nye) for introducing this legislation, and I strongly urge my colleagues to support it.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself the balance of my time.

I want to echo the comments of Mr. Nye from Virginia. Having visited a number of these homes, the health effects from this toxic drywall are very apparent. The sulfur there is pungent. Just in the time that I spent there, I experienced some of the same systems, runny nose, itchy eyes, irritation of the lungs, a cough; and that was just in the very short period of time of about 2 hours. I can only imagine what those families have to endure under those conditions and living in those homes. So our hearts and minds and concerns go out to them.

Last week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released the results of their most recent study of 51 homes. There was a lot of effort to try to get the Consumer Product Safety Commission to do a study on this toxic drywall. Their study did not find anything now that is conclusive about the health effects of drywall, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission did commit to continue the study because we all believe that just looking at 51 homes doesn't look at the full scope of this problem. This problem is in over 2,100 instances, and we know there are more across 32 States. So they've committed to work continually to identify which compounds could be causing these health problems.

Their study found a strong association between the problem drywall, the hydrogen sulfide level in homes with that drywall, and corrosion in these homes. These two preliminary studies of corrosion of metal components taken from homes containing the problem drywall found copper sulfide corrosion in the initial samples tested, which supports the finding of an association between hydrogen sulfide and the corrosion.

Ongoing laboratory tests continue to investigate the nexus between safety and the short- and long-term effects of such corrosion not only on the homes, but it should also be looking at the effects on individuals that inhabit those homes. Based on these studies completed to date, the interagency task force can begin a new phase by developing a protocol to identify homes with corrosive drywall and a process to address the corrosive drywall and its effects.

I urge the task force to work expeditiously to complete the study phase and to release its protocols for identifying impacted homes and for remediation. This resolution will give homeowners the time they need to make decisions based on the Consumer Product Safety Commission studies and protocols for a more permanent solution to their situation.

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

Madam Speaker, I am proud to stand in support of this resolution as a cosponsor.

Contaminated drywall mostly manufactured in China and used in new home construction in the last decade, primarily between 2006 and 2007, has had a devastating impact on the housing industry in Florida and more importantly on the lives of thousands of homeowners and their families.

So far the Consumer Product Safety Commission has received more than 2,000 complaints from affected homeowners in at least 32 states and the District of Columbia. More than three-quarters of these complaints come from Florida. While we do not yet know the full extent of this problem, it appears that this concern is likely to grow considerably larger.

Homeowners with contaminated Chinese drywall have experienced a number of household and health problems. The drywall emits sulfuric compounds which cause corrosion in copper fittings commonly used in plumbing and air conditioning as well as electrical components. Many homeowners have had to replace hardware such as air conditioning coils, carbon monoxide detectors, and smoke alarms multiple times in as little as a year. In addition to the corrosive effects of the sulfuric gases, homeowners have experienced a variety of related health issues, which have forced many to move out of their homes. Common symptoms include eye irritation and breathing problems.

As you can imagine, this is financially and emotionally devastating for homeowners. As a result of contaminated drywall, many homes have dropped precipitously in value. Many people have lost their life savings which was invested in a home which they can now neither live in nor sell. Some have become desperate and chosen to walk away from their mortgages in the hope of starting fresh elsewhere. Still others are continuing to pay their mortgages while taking on the added burden of paying for an alternative living arrangement in the hopes that they can hang on long enough for a remediation protocol to be announced.

I recently toured some of these homes in the Antilles community in my district and I met with affected homeowners. Just a few minutes in one of these houses is enough time to start feeling the symptoms that have caused so many homes to become unlivable. Affected homeowners need help and they need help quickly.

I was pleased that the Federal Inter-Agency Drywall Task Force, headed by the CPSC, released the results of their 51-home study this month. I was encouraged to see some signs of progress from the task force. I was particularly encouraged that the task force officially established a scientific link between the contaminated drywall and the resulting corrosion.

More importantly, the task force has established an identification and remediation protocol team made up of scientists and engineers. While additional scientific studies continue, the most important next steps for the CPSC are to release the identification and remediation protocols. This will hopefully help homeowners to begin getting the problems fixed so their homes are once again livable and up to par with market value.

I call on the CPSC and the task force to move quickly to identify and release these protocols in the most expedient manner possible. I urge the task force to work closely with homeowners and private industry to establish the most efficient and effective methods of identifying and fixing problem drywall.

On the finance side, I encourage lenders to work closely with homeowners to modify loans and extend credit for remediation once a protocol is established. The mortgage crisis of the past year would only be made worse by a new wave of people walking away from their mortgages over this issue. Any help lenders can provide in modifying loans, offering a period of forbearance, and extending credit will help more people to stay in their homes and prevent the banks from having to assume possession of homes which they will not be able sell.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 197) encouraging banks and mortgage servicers to work with families affected by contaminated drywall to allow temporary forbearance without penalty on payments on their home mortgages, 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 to myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, America's homeowners are currently facing the worst economic crisis in recent memory. Foreclosures are up. Home prices have declined and many homeowners now owe more on their homes than they are worth. These economic challenges have been made worse by health and safety issues many homeowners are now facing due to the installation of Chinese drywall in their homes. Since 2007, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has received over 2,100 reports from 32 States detailing health and safety problems associated with Chinese drywall. Health problems include asthma attacks, headaches, irritated eyes and skin and bloody noses.

Regarding home safety, homeowners are seeing their appliances shut down and have witnessed the piping and wiring in their homes turn black from corrosion. This is because of the highly toxic chemicals that are in Chinese drywall. A recent CPSC study found high levels of hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde in the air of homes built with Chinese drywall. As these are highly corrosive and dangerous chemicals, the CPSC is now advising homeowners with homes built with Chinese drywall to spend as much time outdoors and in the fresh air as possible. In the meantime, homeowners are desperate to remove these toxic building materials from their homes. Some have even moved out of their homes in order to complete the repairs. Unfortunately, due to the current economic crisis, many families cannot afford to pay their mortgage and pay the rent on a second home.

The resolution before us today calls on the Nation's mortgage servicers to work with homeowners living in homes affected by Chinese drywall by providing a temporary forbearance of their mortgage in order to assist them in affording the cost of renting a second home while their primary residence is treated.

Madam Speaker, this is a commonsense resolution. It's long overdue. As I mentioned earlier, America's homeowners are dealing with the brunt of the economic crisis head on. Those dealing with Chinese drywall are especially vulnerable and need for their mortgage servicers to step up to the plate to assist them in dealing with this health and safety issue.

I would like to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Nye) for offering this solution. I would like to note that the Senate has already passed a concurrent resolution, and I hope that my colleagues in the House can show their support for America's homeowners by doing the same.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Nye).

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of House Concurrent Resolution 197, encouraging banks and mortgage servicers to work with families affected by contaminated drywall to allow temporary forbearance without penalty on payments on their home mortgages. As a founding co-chair of the Congressional Contaminated Drywall Caucus, I am proud to sponsor this resolution and support its passage, which sheds further light on the plight of thousands of homeowners in south Florida and around the Nation dealing with the ``silent hurricane'' of contaminated drywall in their homes.

The Congressional Contaminated Drywall Caucus, which now has 20 members from seven States, has been working diligently over the past year to ensure that the Federal agencies and relevant organizations in the private sector who have a stake in this issue are engaged in a dialogue that produces a swift and complete response that provides relief to homeowners affected by this contaminated product. While I believe the response has not been nearly as swift as needed, I have been encouraged by recent efforts on the part of the Inter-Agency Task Force, led by Chairman Inez Tenenbaum of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to come to a full determination of the science behind this problem, and from there determine the appropriate response to the litany of issues that victims are facing on a daily basis.

One of these issues, and often one of the most critical for those affected, is maintaining their mortgage. As our economy begins to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression and our housing market begins to show signs of life following record numbers of foreclosures, victims living in homes with contaminated drywall face the continued threat of foreclosure. These innocent victims are being forced to make the choice of remaining in their homes and paying their mortgages, possibly at the risk of their own health and that of their family, or leaving their homes to find alternative housing. Should they choose to seek alternative housing, they are then responsible for both the mortgage on their contaminated home and the rent on their alternative housing.

House Concurrent Resolution 197 sends a strong statement on behalf of the entire House of Representatives that banks and mortgage lenders should work with families affected by this drywall to allow for temporary forbearances on their mortgage, without penalties, to ensure victims have the ability to move their families out of harm's way without risking their financial futures or losing their homes. Providing this relief is not only the right thing to do, but is essential in ensuring affected families do not continue to put their health at risk from this defective product.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to support this resolution and encourage all of my colleagues to support this resolution.

I thank my colleague very much for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I stand here today to raise awareness about a problem affecting hundreds of families in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and thousands across the United States: the problem of toxic Chinese drywall. Chinese drywall has induced serious health problems, created severe financial hardships, and driven thousands of American families from their homes.

Since January 2009, over 1,300 cases have been reported from now over 26 States and the District of Columbia. I have seen firsthand the physical, emotional, and financial burden toxic Chinese drywall creates. Just the other month I visited homes in my district that had the drywall installed. The toxins released by the drywall reeked of rotten eggs and had corroded the electrical wiring of the homes. In fact, there are homes that have had to replace expensive air conditioning units, televisions, microwaves, and other valuable appliances several times because of the harmful chemicals contained in the drywall.

Toxic Chinese drywall can also cause deep coughs, bloody noses, and severe

eye irritation. And those are just the short-term health effects that we know about. I wouldn't be surprised if even more serious health effects are soon found. Affected families have been left with an impossible choice: live in a home and put their family at risk, or shell out tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, to replace the drywall. While some more fortunate families have been able to get help from friends, relatives and neighbors, many others have moved into rental housing, forcing them to pay both rent and the mortgage on the contaminated home. At a time when the economy is already struggling, this hardship is more than families can sustain.

Today, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution encouraging banks and mortgage servicers to work with their customers by allowing a grace period on their mortgage payments until they get back on their feet. Many banking institutions have already voluntarily provided mortgage forbearances for many of their customers, and I applaud the benevolence of these institutions. This can be a life-saver for affected families.

Madam Speaker, as we work to create long-term solutions, we must also find a way to give these families some relief now. I want to thank my friends Mr. Wexler and Mrs. McCarthy; my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Wittman); Mr. Buchanan; as well as Ms. Waters and Chairman Frank for working with me on this important legislation, and I hope the rest of my colleagues will join me in its support.