Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions - S. 1798

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. HOLLINGS (for himself, Mr. BREAUX, Ms. SNOWE, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. GRAHAM of South Carolina, Mr. CHAFEE and Mr. REED):

S. 1798. A bill to provide for comprehensive fire safety standards for upholstered furniture, mattresses, bedclothing, and candles; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, this Congress has worked towards providing the brave men and women who fight fires the funds and material to better perform their crucial tasks. We all saw brave members of the fire service sacrifice their lives to rescue people from the World Trade Center. But we do not see firefighters in every town in America risking their lives every day to save lives and homes from the ravages of fire. I lost a home to a severe fire, and I saw the herculean efforts of my local firefighters to save it. Too many people die or suffer grievous injuries from home fires. During a recent visit with the firefighters from my home State of South Carolina, they told me that in spite of their best efforts, nearly 40 people die each year from home fires.

In my conversations with fire services across the country, I hear two things. First, the departments need funds for equipment and training. With the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement grant program, we are on our way to getting these people the resources they need to do their job. There is more work to do, but this grant program is a start. Second, and most troubling, is that the best-equipped and best-trained fire departments cannot out race most home fires.

A recent FEMA-commissioned study from the National Fire Protection Association reported that 65 percent of our fire departments cannot respond within 4 minutes of receiving an alarm. The fire that engulfed the nightclub in Rhode Island is an unfortunate example of what we are dealing with in regard to fire fighting and fire safety. The fire department arrived within 5 minutes of the fire starting, which is exceptionally fast, yet 100 people died that night. Most of them died within 2 minutes of the fire starting.

Addressing the equipment and training of the fire service is one very important component to fighting fires. We've begun to address this need in recent years with the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement (FIRE) Act, which I co-sponsored and helped move through the Commerce Committee in 2000. This established the FIRE grants that have helped local fire departments across the country acquire the equipment and training to improve their operations. I've also worked with Senator CHRIS DODD, D-CT, on the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Act, which would provide the funding to hire 75,000 new firefighters. The legislation is modeled on the success of the COPS program.

But the soundproofing materials that fed that fire in Rhode Island are identical to ingredients used in furniture in our homes. Indeed, the majority of fire deaths occur in homes. So we must address the underlying causes of home fires, the fuel that feeds them. We need to reduce the ignition potential of household items.

In 1998, residential fires killed 2,660 Americans, and injured 15,260. Senior citizens over 70 and children under 5 are at the greatest risk of dying in a fire; children under the age of 10 accounted for 17 percent of fire-related deaths in 1996. Fires also cause $3.5 billion in residential property loss each year.

It is in this context that Senators JOHN BREAUX, D-LA, OLYMPIA SNOWE, R-ME, BARBARA BOXER, D-CA, BYRON DORGAN, D-ND, LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SC and I introduce the American Home Fire Safety Act. The Act would establish minimum combustibility standards for mattresses, upholstered furniture, candles and bed clothing. American manufacturers already have cost-effective technology to improve the safety of these products, and are ready to make products that meet the higher standards.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission already has the authority to set fire safety standards for these products. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence that new standards would save lives, the Commission has been slow to address this issue. There are some who ask for more time for the Commission to work on this issue. More than 20 years have passed since the Commission has addressed product fire safety. There is no more time to waste.

We have taken great care to select standards that were developed with the best available science and broad input from scientists at NIST and ASTM, fire safety officials, industry and consumers. The Act explicitly asks the EPA to ensure that nothing done in the pursuit of fire safety would harm Americans in other ways. The standards in the Act will improve safety and over time will save many lives.

Companies have the technology right now to address fire safety in an economically responsible way. The number of lives we lose now to home fires can be dramatically reduced by the standards in this legislation. I ask for your support in making this a reality.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

S. 1798

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 "American Home Fire Safety Act".

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

(a) Findings.-Congress makes the following findings:

(1) There were 12,800 candle fires in 1998, resulting in 170 deaths, 1,200 civilian injuries, and $174,600,000 in property damage.

(2) In 1998, mattress and bedding fires caused 410 deaths, 2,260 civilian injuries, and $255,400,000 in property damage.

(3) The United States mattress industry has a long history of working closely with safety officials to reduce mattress flammability. For the past 25 years, mattresses have been subject to a Federal flammability standard that requires mattresses to resist ignition by smoldering cigarettes.

(4) Nevertheless, in 1998, fires involving mattresses and bedding accessories (which include pillows, comforters, and bedspreads) caused 410 deaths, 2,260 civilian injuries, and $255,400,000 in property damage.

(5) In many such fires, the bedding accessories are the first products to ignite. Such products have a material impact on the fire's intensity, duration, and the risk that the fire will spread beyond the room of origin.

(6) Upholstered furniture fires were responsible for 520 deaths in 1998, with little statistical change in the number of fires and deaths since 1994.

(7) While the fire death rates for upholstered furniture fires have dropped during the period 1982 through 1994 for both California and the entire Nation, death rates in California, which has stricter standards, have dropped by a larger percentage than the nation as a whole.

(8) Children, the elderly, and lower income families are at higher risk of death and injury from upholstered furniture fires caused primarily by the in creasing incidents of children playing with matches, candles, lighters, or other small open flames.

(9) In view of the increased incidents of fire, it is important for Congress to establish fire safety standards for candles, mattresses, bed clothing, and upholstered furniture.

(10) The Consumer Product Safety Commission is the appropriate agency to develop and enforce such standards.

(11) The Environmental Protection Agency should continue to review and determine the suitability of any materials used to meet any fire safety standard established as a result of this Act.

(b) Purposes.-The purposes of this Act are-

(1) to protect the public against death and injury from fires associated with candles, mattresses, bed clothing, and upholstered furniture; and

(2) to require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop and issue comprehensive uniform safety standards to reduce the flammability of candles, mattresses, bed clothing, and upholstered furniture.

SEC. 3. CONSUMER PRODUCT FIRE SAFETY STANDARDS.

(a) IN GENERAL.-Within 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Consumer Product Safety Commission shall promulgate, as final consumer product safety standards under section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2058), the following fire safety standards:

(1) UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE.-A fire safety standard for upholstered furniture that is substantially the same as the provisions of Technical Bulletin 117, "Requirements, Test Procedure and Apparatus for testing the Flame and Smolder Resistance of Upholstered Furniture)" published by the State of California, Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation, February 2002.

(2) MATTRESSES.-A fire safety standard for mattresses that is substantially the same as Technical Bulletin 603, "Requirements and Test Procedure for Resistance of a Residential Mattress/Box Spring Set to a Large Open Flame", published by the State of California, Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation, February 2003.

(3) BEDCLOTHING.-A fire safety standard for bedclothing that is substantially the same as the October 22, 2003, draft for task force review of Technical Bulletin 604, "Test Procedure and Apparatus for the Flame Resistance of Filled Bedclothing", published by the State of California, Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation, October 2003.

(4) CANDLES.-A fire safety standard for candles that is substantially the same as Provisional Standard PS 59-02,
"Provisional Specification for Fire Safety for Candles", ASTM International, as that provisional standard existed on the date of enactment of this Act.

(b) APPLICATION OF CERTAIN PROMULGATION REQUIREMENTS.-The requirements of subsections (a) through
(f) of section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2058), and section 36 of that Act (15 U.S.C. 2083), do not apply to the consumer product safety standards required to be promulgated by subsection (a) of this section.