I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1751 

To amend the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety 

Standards Act of 1974 to require that weather radios be installed in 

all manufactured homes manufactured or sold in the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 5, 2011 

Mr. BACHUS (for himself, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, Mr. AL

GREEN of Texas, and Mr. CLAY) introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To amend the National Manufactured Housing Construction 

and Safety Standards Act of 1974 to require that weather radios be installed in all manufactured homes manufactured or sold in the United States. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘CJ’s Home Protection 

5 Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds that— 


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1 (1) nearly 20,000,000 Americans live in manu2 factured homes, which often provide a more acces3 sible and affordable way for many families to buy 

4 their own homes; 

5 (2) manufactured housing plays a vital role in 

6 providing housing for low- and moderate-income 

7 families in the United States; 

8 (3) NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) is a nation9 wide network of radio stations broadcasting contin10 uous weather information directly from a nearby Na11 tional Weather Service (NWS) office, and broadcasts 

12 NWS warnings, watches, forecasts, and other all13 hazard information 24 hours a day; 

14 (4) the operators of manufactured housing com15 munities should be encouraged to provide a safe 

16 place of shelter for community residents or a plan 

17 for the evacuation of community residents to a safe 

18 place of shelter within a reasonable distance of the 

19 community for use by community residents in times 

20 of severe weather, including tornados and high 

21 winds, and local municipalities should be encouraged 

22 to require approval of these plans; and 

23 (5) weather radio manufacturers should include, 

24 in the packaging of weather radios, a written reVerDate Mar 15 2010 22:44 May 10, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1751.IH H1751

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HR 1751 IH 

1 minder to replace the batteries twice each year and 

2 written instructions on how to do so. 

3 SEC. 3. FEDERAL MANUFACTURED HOME CONSTRUCTION 

4 AND SAFETY STANDARD. 

5 Section 604 of the National Manufactured Housing 

6 Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 

7 U.S.C. 5403) is amended by adding at the end the fol8 lowing new subsection: 

9 ‘‘(i) WEATHER RADIOS.— 

10 ‘‘(1) CONSTRUCTION AND SAFETY STAND11 ARD.—The Federal manufactured home construction 

12 and safety standards established by the Secretary 

13 under this section shall require that each manufac14 tured home delivered for sale shall be supplied with 

15 a weather radio inside the manufactured home 

16 that— 

17 ‘‘(A) is capable of broadcasting emergency 

18 information relating to local weather conditions; 

19 ‘‘(B) is equipped with a tone alarm; 

20 ‘‘(C) is equipped with Specific Alert Mes21 sage Encoding, or SAME technology; and 

22 ‘‘(D) complies with Consumer Electronics 

23 Association (CEA) Standard 2009–A (or cur24 rent revision thereof) Performance Specification 

25 for Public Alert Receivers. 


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1 ‘‘(2) LIABILITY PROTECTIONS.—No aspect of 

2 the function, operation, performance, capabilities, or 

3 utilization of the weather radio required under this 

4 subsection, or any instructions related thereto, shall 

5 be subject to the requirements of sections 613 or 

6 615 or any regulations promulgated by the Secretary 

7 pursuant to the authority under such sections.’’. 

8 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT. 

9 Not later than the expiration of the 90-day period 

10 beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

11 consensus committee established pursuant to section 

12 604(a)(3) of the National Manufactured Housing Con13 struction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 

14 5304(a)(3)) shall develop and submit to the Secretary of 

15 Housing and Urban Development a proposed Federal 

16 manufactured home construction and safety standard re17 quired under section 604(i) of such Act (as added by the 

18 amendment made by section 3 of this Act). Notwith19 standing section 604(a)(5)(B) of such Act, the Secretary 

20 of Housing and Urban Development shall issue a final 

21 order promulgating the standard required by such section 

22 604(i) not later than the expiration of the 90-day period 

23 beginning upon receipt by the Secretary of the proposed 

24 standard developed and submitted by the consensus com25 mittee. 


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1 SEC. 5. STUDY. 

2 The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 

3 shall conduct a study regarding conditioning the applica4 bility of the requirement under the amendment made by 

5 section 3 of this Act (relating to supplying weather radios 

6 in manufactured homes) on the geographic location at 

7 which a manufactured home is placed, but only to the ex8 tent that such requirement applies to new manufactured 

9 homes and new site-built homes. In conducting such study 

10 and making determinations under the study, the Secretary 

11 shall take into consideration severe weather conditions, 

12 such as high winds and flooding, and wind zones and other 

13 severe weather data available from the National Weather 

14 Service. Not later than the expiration of the 18-month pe15 riod beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, 

16 the Secretary shall complete the study and submit a report 

17 regarding the results of the study to the Committee on 

18 Financial Services of the House of Representatives and 

19 to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Af20 fairs of the Senate. 

Æ 


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