Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am introducing two bills pertaining to healthy housing, the Healthy Housing Council Act and the Title X Amendments Act. These bills seek to improve federal coordination of healthy housing efforts and better integrate healthy housing activities into the ongoing lead poisoning prevention work at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The crisis in Flint, Michigan reaffirms a tragic reality; millions of Americans, including thousands of children and families in Rhode Island, remain at risk from lead exposure. For example, Rhode Island has the highest percentage of low-income children living in older housing, which poses health risks for these children because of the lead paint used in these older homes. Fortunately, Rhode Island has been a national leader in working to reduce lead hazards and bring down childhood lead poisoning rates. The number of children with elevated blood lead levels has been steadily declining in all areas of Rhode Island over the last decade, from 212 children under the age of 6 in 2005 to 42 children in 2015. But as we have seen this year with the tragedy in Flint, MI, lead poisoning among children is still a huge problem in this country. This is unacceptable, which is why I have long sought to improve and maximize federal finding for lead poisoning prevention programs.

The Title X Amendments Act makes important improvements to lead poisoning prevention programs at HUD to better serve low income families at risk for lead poisoning. It would provide HUD with the necessary authority to continue to carry out healthy housing activities while protecting important ongoing lead remediation efforts, allow grantees to improve the conditions in zero-bedroom units, and streamline eligibility for assistance. These are simple, yet necessary reforms designed to improve and expand cost-effective services, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to see them enacted.

It is also vital that we continue the type of collaboration and coordination among Federal departments and agencies, like HUD, HHS, EPA, and CDC, that resulted in the Strategy for Action to Advance Healthy Homes. Indeed, there are many programs fragmented across multiple agencies that are responsible for addressing housing-related health hazards like lead and radon, and we should strive to improve the efficiency and efficacy of these efforts by ensuring that these agencies continue to work together.

The Healthy Housing Council Act would establish an independent interagency Council on Healthy Housing in the executive branch in order to improve coordination, bring existing efforts out of their respective silos, and reduce duplication.

The bill calls for the council to convene periodic meetings with experts in the public and private sectors to discuss ways to educate individuals and families on how to recognize housing-related health hazards and access the necessary services and preventive measures to combat these hazards. The council would also be required to hold biannual stakeholder meetings, maintain an updated website, and work to unify healthy housing data collection.

In addition to the 23 million homes with lead-based paint hazards, there are nearly 6 million households with moderate or severe health hazards, resulting in approximately 22,600 unintentional injury and fire deaths and 21,000 radon-associated lung cancer deaths every year. These bills seek to tackle these numbers, which contribute to increasing health care costs for individuals and families, as well as for Federal, State, and local governments.

The presence of housing-related health hazards is often overlooked and yet these hazards are sometimes the cause of a variety of preventable diseases and conditions like cancer, lead poisoning, and asthma. Promoting low-cost measures to eliminate subpar housing can make a dramatic and meaningful difference in the lives of children and families and help reduce health care costs. I am pleased that the National Center for Healthy Housing supports both of these bills and I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this legislation forward.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source