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 Com-
mittee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To amend the National Manufactured Housing Construction 
and Safety Standards Act of 1974 to require that weath-
er radios be installed in all manufactured homes manu-
factured or sold in the United States. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘CJ’s Home Protection 
Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds that— 
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(1) nearly 20,000,000 Americans live in manu-
factured homes, which often provide a more acces-
sible and affordable way for many families to buy 
their own homes; 
(2) manufactured housing plays a vital role in 
providing housing for low- and moderate-income 
families in the United States; 
(3) NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) is a nation-
wide network of radio stations broadcasting contin-
uous weather information directly from a nearby Na-
tional Weather Service (NWS) office, and broadcasts 
NWS warnings, watches, forecasts, and other all- 
hazard information 24 hours a day; 
(4) the operators of manufactured housing com-
munities should be encouraged to provide a safe 
place of shelter for community residents or a plan 
for the evacuation of community residents to a safe 
place of shelter within a reasonable distance of the 
community for use by community residents in times 
of severe weather, including tornados and high 
winds, and local municipalities should be encouraged 
to require approval of these plans; 
(5) the operators of manufactured housing com-
munities should be encouraged to provide a written 
reminder semiannually to all owners of manufac-
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tured homes in the manufactured housing commu-
nity to replace the batteries in their weather radios; 
and 
(6) weather radio manufacturers should include, 
in the packaging of weather radios, a written re-
minder to replace the batteries twice each year and 
written instructions on how to do so. 
SEC. 3. FEDERAL MANUFACTURED HOME CONSTRUCTION 
AND SAFETY STANDARD. 
Section 604 of the National Manufactured Housing 
Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 
U.S.C. 5403) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new subsection: 
‘‘(i) WEATHER RADIOS.— 
‘‘(1) CONSTRUCTION
AND
SAFETY
STAND-
ARD.—The Federal manufactured home construction 
and safety standards established by the Secretary 
under this section shall require that each manufac-
tured home delivered for sale shall be supplied with 
a weather radio inside the manufactured home 
that— 
‘‘(A) is capable of broadcasting emergency 
information relating to local weather conditions; 
‘‘(B) is equipped with a tone alarm; 
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‘‘(C) is equipped with Specific Alert Mes-
sage Encoding, or SAME technology; and 
‘‘(D) complies with Consumer Electronics 
Association (CEA) Standard 2009–A (or cur-
rent revision thereof) Performance Specification 
for Public Alert Receivers. 
‘‘(2) LIABILITY
PROTECTIONS.—No aspect of 
the function, operation, performance, capabilities, or 
utilization of the weather radio required under this 
subsection, or any instructions related thereto, shall 
be subject to the requirements of section 613 or 615 
or any regulations promulgated by the Secretary 
pursuant to the authority under such sections.’’. 
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT. 
Not later than the expiration of the 90-day period 
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
consensus committee established pursuant to section 
604(a)(3) of the National Manufactured Housing Con-
struction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 
5304(a)(3)) shall develop and submit to the Secretary of 
Housing and Urban Development a proposed Federal 
manufactured home construction and safety standard re-
quired under section 604(i) of such Act (as added by the 
amendment made by section 3 of this Act). Notwith-
standing section 604(a)(5)(B) of such Act, the Secretary 
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of Housing and Urban Development shall issue a final 
order promulgating the standard required by such section 
604(i) not later than the expiration of the 90-day period 
beginning upon receipt by the Secretary of the proposed 
standard developed and submitted by the consensus com-
mittee. 
SEC. 5. STUDY. 
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 
shall conduct a study regarding conditioning the applica-
bility of the requirement under the amendment made by 
section 3 of this Act (relating to supplying weather radios 
in manufactured homes) on the geographic location at 
which a manufactured home is placed, but only to the ex-
tent that such requirement applies to new manufactured 
homes and new site-built homes. In conducting such study 
and making determinations under the study, the Secretary 
shall take into consideration severe weather conditions, 
such as high winds and flooding, and wind zones and other 
severe weather data available from the National Weather 
Service. Not later than the expiration of the 18-month pe-
riod beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary shall complete the study and submit a report 
regarding the results of the study to the Committee on 
Financial Services of the House of Representatives and 
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to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Af-
fairs of the Senate. 
Æ 
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