Awning Safety Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6132) to require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to promulgate a mandatory consumer product safety standard with respect to retractable awnings.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 6132

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 ``Awning Safety Act of 2023''. SEC. 2. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY STANDARD FOR RETRACTABLE AWNINGS.

(a) Consumer Product Safety Standard Required.--Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Consumer Product Safety Commission shall promulgate, under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, a final consumer product safety standard for fixed and freestanding retractable awnings within the jurisdiction of the Commission to protect against the risk of death or serious injury related to the hazards associated with such awnings, including the risk of death or serious injury related to the awning unexpectedly opening and striking a person while removing the bungee tie-downs for the cover of the awning.

(b) CPSC Determination of Scope.--The Consumer Product Safety Commission shall specify the types of retractable awning devices within the jurisdiction of the Commission that are within the scope of subsection (a) as part of a standard promulgated under this section, as reasonably necessary to protect against hazards associated with retractable awnings.

(c) Treatment of Standard.--A consumer product safety standard promulgated under subsection (a) shall be treated as a consumer product safety rule promulgated under sections 7 and 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2056 and 2058).

Mr. Speaker, first, I thank Representatives Balderson and Castor for introducing this particular piece of legislation, H.R. 6132, the Awning Safety Act, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our constituents for bringing these issues to our attention. We really appreciate it. I appreciate the chairwoman and the ranking member because they are bringing these issues forward, and they need to be passed unanimously in the House and go over to the Senate. It is so very important.

Motorized awnings pose a known hazard to the public with about 270,000 units being subject to a recall by the manufacturer facilitated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in August of 2019.

This product is associated with many incidents, including at least one report of a death and six serious injuries.

The death involved a 73-year-old man who died after falling from a ladder over an elevated porch when the motorized awning opened and unexpectedly struck him.

There is currently no voluntary standard for motorized awnings, and the recall only covered one manufacturer of the products.

H.R. 6132 will save lives and will require the CPSC to promulgate a mandatory standard regarding these home retractable awnings, which is within the jurisdiction of the CPSC.

This is a commonsense bill, Mr. Speaker, and I urge my colleagues to support this particular bill.
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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote. I thank my colleagues, Representative Castor from the State of Florida, and, of course, Mr. Balderson from the great State of Ohio for sponsoring the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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