Youth Poisoning Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4310) to ban the sale of products with a high concentration of sodium nitrite to individuals, and for other purposes.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 4310

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Youth Poisoning Protection Act''. SEC. 2. BANNING OF PRODUCTS CONTAINING A HIGH CONCENTRATION OF SODIUM NITRITE.

(a) In General.--Any consumer product containing a high concentration of sodium nitrite shall be considered to be a banned hazardous product under section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2057).

(b) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:

(1) Consumer product.--The term ``consumer product'' has the meaning given that term under section 3(a)(5) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2052(a)(5)).

(2) High concentration of sodium nitrite.--The term ``high concentration of sodium nitrite'' means a concentration of 10 or more percent by weight of sodium nitrite.

(c) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4310, the Youth Poisoning Protection Act.

It is important for the House to pass H.R. 4310 because, sadly, we have seen a significant rise in self-poisonings using sodium nitrite in the United States since 2017.

Many of these poisonings occur due to simple online purchase of these ingredients. While sodium nitrite has a wide variety of valuable commercial and industrial uses, which importantly this legislation does not affect, it is also crucial that Congress intervene to prevent these tragic outcomes, particularly amongst our children.

This legislation seeks to address poisonings through a narrowly tailored prohibition on the sale of consumer products that contain sodium nitrite at concentrations greater than 10 percent, which precludes consumer access to products regulated under the Consumer Product Safety Act.

I thank Representatives Trahan and Casey for their strong bipartisan work on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' today, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, this is a bipartisan bill. As far as I am concerned, it is a no-brainer. We need to get it over to the Senate as soon as possible to save lives.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, again, I encourage a ``yes'' vote on this particular bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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