I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 320 

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 

JANUARY 8, 2009 

Mr. ELLSWORTH (for himself, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, and Ms. 

GRANGER) 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 2009’’. 

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; 

23 (5) the operators of manufactured housing com24 munities should be encouraged to provide a written 

25 reminder semiannually to all owners of manufacVerDate Nov 24 2008 21:58 Jan 11, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H320.IH H320

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1 tured homes in the manufactured housing commu2 nity to replace the batteries in their weather radios; 

3 and 

4 (6) weather radio manufacturers should include, 

5 in the packaging of weather radios, a written re6 minder to replace the batteries twice each year and 

7 written instructions on how to do so. 

8 SEC. 3. FEDERAL MANUFACTURED HOME CONSTRUCTION 

9 AND SAFETY STANDARD. 

10 Section 604 of the National Manufactured Housing 

11 Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 

12 U.S.C. 5403) is amended by adding at the end the fol13 lowing new subsection: 

14 ‘‘(i) WEATHER RADIOS.— 

15 ‘‘(1) CONSTRUCTION AND SAFETY STAND16 ARD.—The Federal manufactured home construction 

17 and safety standards established by the Secretary 

18 under this section shall require that each manufac19 tured home delivered for sale shall be supplied with 

20 a weather radio inside the manufactured home 

21 that— 

22 ‘‘(A) is capable of broadcasting emergency 

23 information relating to local weather conditions; 

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


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1 ‘‘(C) is equipped with Specific Alert Mes2 sage Encoding, or SAME technology; and 

3 ‘‘(D) complies with Consumer Electronics 

4 Association (CEA) Standard 2009–A (or cur5 rent revision thereof) Performance Specification 

6 for Public Alert Receivers. 

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

8 the function, operation, performance, capabilities, or 

9 utilization of the weather radio required under this 

10 subsection, or any instructions related thereto, shall 

11 be subject to the requirements of section 613 or 615 

12 or any regulations promulgated by the Secretary 

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

14 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT. 

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

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

17 consensus committee established pursuant to section 

18 604(a)(3) of the National Manufactured Housing Con19 struction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 

20 5304(a)(3)) shall develop and submit to the Secretary of 

21 Housing and Urban Development a proposed Federal 

22 manufactured home construction and safety standard re23 quired under section 604(i) of such Act (as added by the 

24 amendment made by section 3 of this Act). Notwith25 standing section 604(a)(5)(B) of such Act, the Secretary 


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1 of Housing and Urban Development shall issue a final 

2 order promulgating the standard required by such section 

3 604(i) not later than the expiration of the 90-day period 

4 beginning upon receipt by the Secretary of the proposed 

5 standard developed and submitted by the consensus com6 mittee. 

7 SEC. 5. STUDY. 

8 The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 

9 shall conduct a study regarding conditioning the applica10 bility of the requirement under the amendment made by 

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

12 in manufactured homes) on the geographic location at 

13 which a manufactured home is placed, but only to the ex14 tent that such requirement applies to new manufactured 

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

16 and making determinations under the study, the Secretary 

17 shall take into consideration severe weather conditions, 

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

19 severe weather data available from the National Weather 

20 Service. Not later than the expiration of the 18-month pe21 riod beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, 

22 the Secretary shall complete the study and submit a report 

23 regarding the results of the study to the Committee on 

24 Financial Services of the House of Representatives and 


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1 to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Af2 fairs of the Senate. 

Æ 


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