Compound 1080 and Sodium Cyanide Elimination Act

Mr. Speaker, I would be prepared to reserve my time if my friend, Mr. Rigell, would like to speak first.

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

I rise in strong support of this amended form of H.R. 4212, the Contaminated Drywall Safety Act of 2012.

My friend Mr. Rigell is correct: when we have an opportunity to do something for the families in America who are really suffering and when we can do it in a commonsense and bipartisan way, we have every responsibility to take that action. That's what this bill is about, and that's what this evening is about.

In the wake of the 2005 and 2006 hurricane seasons, a domestic shortage of drywall developed in our country, drywall for rebuilding homes and businesses. To make up for this shortage, builders began importing several million tons of drywall from China; but it was not until 2009 that reports started

to surface that, unbeknownst to the builders or to the consumers, much of the drywall coming from China emitted high levels of corrosive sulfur.

Currently, thousands of homeowners in 42 States, as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa, have been enduring an emergency situation in which contaminated drywall from China has been causing ever worsening destruction and damage to their homes. It has also caused serious health problems for the families living in those homes. Like my friend from Virginia, in having the opportunity to visit with families and listen to them share their stories about the illnesses that come one after another after another to their children, ultimately forcing them to move from their homes, one can't be helped but be moved to action.

The problematic drywall corrodes copper piping and wiring in homes, which causes the failure of air-conditioning systems, telecommunications wiring, wiring for lighting and other household appliances. Such corrosion poses both potential fire and safety hazards in homes, and it causes undue financial hardship for homeowners who are constantly forced to repair or replace essential appliances.

The damage to the housing structures and the detrimental health impact on family members caused by contaminated Chinese drywall renders many of these homes simply uninhabitable. Such a situation forces some families to find alternate housing while also having to maintain the mortgages on their homes that are uninhabitable. In these difficult economic times, tremendous strain is being placed on limited family finances to constantly replace or make repairs to essential home appliances or to pay for other housing options while maintaining that mortgage on an uninhabitable home with Chinese drywall. These families have been and are in desperate need of assistance.

This bill seeks to provide assistance to homeowners who have contaminated drywall in their homes and to prevent contaminated drywall from entering the country in the future.

Our bill will assist homeowners who are victims of this problematic Chinese drywall by urging the Secretary of Commerce to insist that the Chinese Government facilitate a meeting between the companies that manufacture the contaminated drywall and the representatives of the U.S. Government to help remedy homeowners who have the contaminated drywall in their homes. In addition, the bill urges the Secretary of Commerce to insist that the Chinese Government direct the companies that manufactured this contaminated drywall and exported it to this country to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States Federal courts and to comply with any decisions issued by those courts on behalf of the homeowners with this contaminated drywall.

The bill will ensure that similar problematic drywall is not imported into this country in the future. It would require that each sheet of drywall that is imported for use in the U.S. be labeled with the name of the manufacturer and the month and year of manufacture. In addition, the bill requires that the Consumer Product Safety Commission ensure that future drywall manufactured or imported for use in the U.S. contain sulfur limits that do not cause elevated rates of corrosion in the home. The bill also requires the CPSC to revise their remediation guidance for homes with contaminated drywall to include a provision that contaminated drywall removed from homes should not be used in the production of new drywall.

This bill is a product of bipartisan negotiations, and it demonstrates how this House works best when both sides work together to get something done for the American people.

I really do want to express my sincere appreciation to my cochair of the Congressional Contaminated Drywall Caucus, Congressman Rigell, for all of his hard work and leadership on this issue.

I also want to thank the Energy and Commerce Committee, particularly Chairman Upton and Chairwoman Bono Mack, for their help as well as the help of Ranking Member Waxman and of the ranking member on the subcommittee, Congressman Butterfield.

I would also like to thank Congresswoman and Chair Ileana Ros- Lehtinen from the Foreign Affairs Committee for all of her hard work, together with that of Ranking Member Berman, in the commitment to finding a compromise to permit this bill to move forward.

Finally, I would like to recognize my friend Congressman Mario Diaz- Balart for his tireless work on this issue from the time the first reports of contaminated drywall surfaced and for providing much-needed assistance to those victims of contaminated Chinese drywall.

For all of these reasons and for all of the people who have been affected, I urge my colleagues this evening to support the passage of

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4212) to designate drywall manufactured in China a banned hazardous product, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on H.R. 4212.

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

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, which has jurisdiction over the Consumer Product Safety Commission, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4212, an important bipartisan bill to help the Federal Government fight the problem of defective and potentially hazardous Chinese drywall.

I would like to thank my colleague, Mr. Rigell of Virginia, for all of his hard and thoughtful work on this important legislation.

Today, if something smells rotten in your home or in your business, Chinese drywall may be to blame. Scientific laboratory tests have identified emissions from some of this drywall to include sulfurous gases such as hydrogen sulfide, which leaves a stench muck like rotten eggs.

It's time to address this widespread problem, which exploded across our landscape after Hurricane Katrina. By some estimates, enough suspect Chinese drywall has entered the U.S. since 2006 to build more than 60,000 American homes, many of which are located in the southeastern U.S.

But here's the problem. The emissions from contaminated drywall worsen as the temperature and the humidity rise, causing copper surfaces, including pipes, wiring, and air conditioning coils to become blackened and corroded. As a result, many people have complained about respiratory problems such as chronic coughing, asthma attacks, and difficulty in breathing, and that's in addition to headaches and sinus issues.

Most of the companies which made this bad drywall are owned, at least in part, by the Chinese Government, and they have steadfastly refused to appear in American courts or to cooperate with the Federal Government's ongoing safety investigation.

In some cases, U.S. builders, to their credit, have stepped up on their own to remediate the problem, but thousands of others have had to sue or simply eat the costs of replacing this drywall.

H.R. 4212 is one way to help prevent this problem from happening again in the future.

But, at the same time, we're also trying to help people who've already been impacted. This bill directs the Secretary of Commerce to work with the Chinese Government in coming up with a fair solution to settle outstanding claims.

In addition, H.R. 4212 requires labeling of all drywall with the name of the manufacturer and the date of its manufacture. In the past, the lack of this critically important information has been a real problem because homeowners couldn't tell, in many cases, which company manufactured that bad drywall.

And finally, this legislation requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission to promulgate an important new standard to limit the sulfur content of drywall, unless industry comes up with an acceptable voluntary standard first.

Mr. Speaker, science has spoken. This isn't a case of we think we have a problem. Today, we know we have a problem. China chooses to ignore it, but America chooses to do something about it.

I strongly urge the adoption of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

U.S. House of Representatives,

Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC, October 5, 2011.

Hon. Fred Upton,

Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Upton: Thank you for your consultation with

the Foreign Affairs Committee on the amended text of H.R.

4212, the Drywall Safety Act of 2012, given the referral of

that bill to our Committee.

I am writing to confirm the agreement of the Foreign

Affairs Committee to be discharged from consideration of H.R.

4214 in order to expedite its consideration on the House

floor. In agreeing to waive consideration of that bill, this

Committee does not waive any jurisdiction that it has over

provisions in that bill or any other matter. This also does

not constitute a waiver of the participation of the Committee

of Foreign Affairs in any conference on this bill. I ask that

you include a copy of this letter and your response in the

Congressional Record during floor consideration of the bill.

Thank you again for your consideration and collegiality in

this matter.

Cordially,

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Rigell), my colleague and the author of this bill, a very hard worker.

As I have no further requests for time, in closing I just want to make one very important point here--and I think it's a great point to make right now--which is that Republicans and Democrats are united on this very important health and safety issue. ``Made in China'' is stamped on everything from kids' toys to consumer electronics, so let's just make sure it is stamped on our drywall, too. Let's also make sure that this is a safe product, that it's environmentally friendly, and that someone stands behind it.

I applaud Mr. Rigell for his hard work, and I thank Mr. Deutch very much for bringing it to our attention and for working with our committee. I, too, thank the staffs of the subcommittee and the full committee for all of their hard work over these past many days.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask that my colleagues support H.R. 4212, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and I thank my colleagues for being here tonight to support a really great and much- needed piece of legislation.

I do rise in strong support of the Drywall Safety Act of 2012. This truly is a bill about protecting the American family, both their physical health and their financial health.

Mr. Speaker, this is about doing what is right to address a terrible injustice that has fallen upon so many families, many of whom live in the Second Congressional District of Virginia, and thousands across our country. These are families that are reeling financially, and also their health has been damaged because of drywall that was manufactured in a defective manner in China and then shipped to the United States and installed in homes across our great land.

They're our friends and neighbors, hardworking folks who saved, bought homes, and were living the American Dream, or really, so they thought. And their dream, Mr. Speaker, so often has turned into a true nightmare. Their children have developed just bloody noses and respiratory ailments.

Mr. Speaker, I've met with these families. It's really heartbreaking. They're having to pay for their current home, which is uninhabitable, and then go out and rent or maybe attempt to buy another home. It's a type of financial stress that so many of the families have been unable to adjust to. And many of them, so many of whom I've met with, have ended up having to file financial bankruptcy.

So I appreciate the leadership of the chairwoman this evening and my friend and colleague, Representative Deutch, a cochairman with me on the Contaminated Drywall Caucus. We've advanced, we believe, a sound piece of legislation, bipartisan, that really addresses this problem. It doesn't, and we don't portend that it fixes everything, but it is a major and significant step forward.

These families, the only thing they have left is, I think, hope that we'll do the right thing here tonight. It's been over 4 years that these families have been hurting. You know, they looked first to the lender, to the importers of the drywall, to the insurers. They didn't find any real relief there.

Some of the banks, to their credit, have given some consideration, but it's not enough. We've got to act tonight in this House, and I trust that we will.

The bill takes China to task directly for failing to require their state-owned manufacturers to compensate the victims of their contaminated products. It expresses the undivided sense of Congress that the Government of China needs to make right and ensure that those who have lost so much are made whole.

As the chairwoman pointed out, clear labeling requirements are incorporated into the legislation; and by limiting the amount of elemental sulfur allowed in the drywall, it will ensure that drywall that is defective is not imported into this country. As a lighter, smarter regulation advocate, I am delighted that we have gone the route of voluntary standards. If we can go that direction, that's our preferred way above the regulatory approach. So we set up the industry, itself, to advance by setting industry standards that will apply as well to foreign manufactured drywall products, and we will protect our homeowners that way.

In closing, I just want to express again my sincere appreciation to all of those who have made it possible for us to bring the bill to the floor, and I trust and hope that we will pass it by unanimous consent tonight.

I particularly want to thank my friend and colleague from Florida, Representative Deutch, for his leadership in serving as the cochairman of our caucus.

You've just been terrific, and your staff has been terrific.

I also want to thank the majority and minority members and the staffs on the Energy and Commerce Committee who worked so hard to navigate a lot of challenges to get this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, this is commonsense legislation. It is much needed. I know these families and they are hurting. I trust and encourage my colleagues to do the right thing tonight--to advance this bill and to support it.