I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2248 
To establish a grant program to assist States in inspecting hotel rooms 
for bed bugs, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 5, 2009 
Mr. BUTTERFIELD (for himself, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Mr. CHANDLER, Mr. 
RUSH, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. COHEN, 
Mr. MILLER of North Carolina, and Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of 
Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Financial 
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish a grant program to assist States in inspecting 
hotel rooms for bed bugs, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Don’t Let the Bed 
Bugs Bite Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
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(1) on February 12, 2008, a thorough inspec-
tion of a hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire, found 
that 16 of 117 rooms were infested with bedbugs; 
(2) cimex lectularius, commonly known as bed 
bugs, travel through the ventilation systems in 
multi-unit establishments causing exponential infes-
tations; 
(3) female bedbugs can lay up to 5 eggs in a 
day and 500 during a lifetime; 
(4) bedbug populations in the United States 
have increased by 500 percent in the past few years; 
(5) in 2004, New York City had 377 bedbug 
violations and from July to November of 2005, a 5- 
month span, there were 449 violations reported in 
the city, an alarming increase in infestations over a 
short period of time; 
(6) in a study of 700 hotel rooms between 2002 
and 2006, 25 percent of hotels were found to be in 
need of bedbug treatment; 
(7) bed bugs possess all of the necessary pre-
requisites for being capable of passing diseases from 
one host to another; and 
(8) research on the public health implications of 
bed bugs and their potential for spread of infectious 
disease is not current. 
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SEC. 3. BED BUG INSPECTION GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) ADMINISTRATION; AMOUNT.—The Secretary of 
Commerce, in cooperation with the Travel and Tourism 
Advisory Board, may provide grants to an eligible State 
to assist such State in carrying out the inspections de-
scribed in subsection (c). The grants shall be in amounts 
determined by the Secretary, taking into consideration the 
relative needs of the State. 
(b) ELIGIBILITY.—A State is eligible for a grant 
under this Act if the State has established a program 
whereby— 
(1) not fewer than 20 percent of rooms in lodg-
ing facilities in such State are inspected annually for 
cimex lectularius, commonly known as the bed bug; 
and 
(2) inspections are conducted by individuals 
who meet the minimum competency standard or re-
quirement for inspecting or treating rooms in lodg-
ing facilities for bed bugs, as adopted by the State 
agency charged with regulating pest management 
activities. 
(c) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of funding 
for such a program shall not exceed 80 percent. 
(d) USE OF GRANTS.—A State may use a grant re-
ceived under this Act to— 
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(1) conduct inspections of lodging facilities for 
cimex lectularius, including transportation, lodging, 
and meal expenses for inspectors; 
(2) train inspection personnel; 
(3) contract with a commercial applicator, as 
defined in section 2(e) of the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 136(e)), 
to inspect and treat lodging facilities for cimex 
lectularius; and 
(4) educate the proprietors and staff of lodging 
establishments about methods to prevent and eradi-
cate cimex lectularius. 
(e) APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under this 
Act, an eligible State shall submit an application to the 
Secretary of Commerce in such form and containing such 
information as the Secretary shall determine. 
(f) DEFINITION OF LODGING FACILITY.—For pur-
poses of this Act and the requirement under subsection 
(b) for State programs receiving funding under this Act, 
the term ‘‘lodging facility’’ means any individual hotel, 
motel, or inn that makes available for commercial lodging 
more than 10 individual rooms. 
(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 for each of fis-
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