II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 320 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 3, 2009 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Act of 2009’’. 

4 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 

5 The Congress finds that— 

6 (1) nearly 20,000,000 Americans live in manu7 factured homes, which often provide a more acces8 sible and affordable way for many families to buy 

9 their own homes; 

10 (2) manufactured housing plays a vital role in 

11 providing housing for low- and moderate-income 

12 families in the United States; 

13 (3) NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) is a nation14 wide network of radio stations broadcasting contin15 uous weather information directly from a nearby Na16 tional Weather Service (NWS) office, and broadcasts 

17 NWS warnings, watches, forecasts, and other all18 hazard information 24 hours a day; 

19 (4) the operators of manufactured housing com20 munities should be encouraged to provide a safe 

21 place of shelter for community residents or a plan 

22 for the evacuation of community residents to a safe 

23 place of shelter within a reasonable distance of the 

24 community for use by community residents in times 

25 of severe weather, including tornados and high 


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1 winds, and local municipalities should be encouraged 

2 to require approval of these plans; 

3 (5) the operators of manufactured housing com4 munities should be encouraged to provide a written 

5 reminder semiannually to all owners of manufac6 tured homes in the manufactured housing commu7 nity to replace the batteries in their weather radios; 

8 and 

9 (6) weather radio manufacturers should include, 

10 in the packaging of weather radios, a written re11 minder to replace the batteries twice each year and 

12 written instructions on how to do so. 

13 SEC. 3. FEDERAL MANUFACTURED HOME CONSTRUCTION 

14 AND SAFETY STANDARD. 

15 Section 604 of the National Manufactured Housing 

16 Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 

17 U.S.C. 5403) is amended by adding at the end the fol18 lowing new subsection: 

19 ‘‘(i) WEATHER RADIOS.— 

20 ‘‘(1) CONSTRUCTION AND SAFETY STAND21 ARD.—The Federal manufactured home construction 

22 and safety standards established by the Secretary 

23 under this section shall require that each manufac24 tured home delivered for sale shall be supplied with 


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1 a weather radio inside the manufactured home 

2 that— 

3 ‘‘(A) is capable of broadcasting emergency 

4 information relating to local weather conditions; 

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

6 ‘‘(C) is equipped with Specific Alert Mes7 sage Encoding, or SAME technology; and 

8 ‘‘(D) complies with Consumer Electronics 

9 Association (CEA) Standard 2009–A (or cur10 rent revision thereof) Performance Specification 

11 for Public Alert Receivers. 

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

13 the function, operation, performance, capabilities, or 

14 utilization of the weather radio required under this 

15 subsection, or any instructions related thereto, shall 

16 be subject to the requirements of section 613 or 615 

17 or any regulations promulgated by the Secretary 

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

19 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT. 

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

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

22 consensus committee established pursuant to section 

23 604(a)(3) of the National Manufactured Housing Con24 struction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 

25 5304(a)(3)) shall develop and submit to the Secretary of 


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1 Housing and Urban Development a proposed Federal 

2 manufactured home construction and safety standard re3 quired under section 604(i) of such Act (as added by the 

4 amendment made by section 3 of this Act). Notwith5 standing section 604(a)(5)(B) of such Act, the Secretary 

6 of Housing and Urban Development shall issue a final 

7 order promulgating the standard required by such section 

8 604(i) not later than the expiration of the 90-day period 

9 beginning upon receipt by the Secretary of the proposed 

10 standard developed and submitted by the consensus com11 mittee. 

12 SEC. 5. STUDY. 

13 The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 

14 shall conduct a study regarding conditioning the applica15 bility of the requirement under the amendment made by 

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

17 in manufactured homes) on the geographic location at 

18 which a manufactured home is placed, but only to the ex19 tent that such requirement applies to new manufactured 

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

21 and making determinations under the study, the Secretary 

22 shall take into consideration severe weather conditions, 

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

24 severe weather data available from the National Weather 

25 Service. Not later than the expiration of the 18-month peVerDate Nov 24 2008 02:09 Dec 04, 2009 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H320.RFS H320

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1 riod beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, 

2 the Secretary shall complete the study and submit a report 

3 regarding the results of the study to the Committee on 

4 Financial Services of the House of Representatives and 

5 to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Af6 fairs of the Senate. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 2, 

2009. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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