S-2631 : Still Just a Bill

Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2016

This bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to promulgate regulations to update the standards for lead-contaminated dust and lead-contaminated soil, in accordance with health-based standards.

The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 is amended to define elevated blood lead level as the lower of:

• 5 mg/dL (micrograms of lead per deciliter), or
• the most recent definition for elevated blood lead level or reference range level in children ages 1 through 5 set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bill also removes 0-bedroom housing from the definition of target housing.

The Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act is amended to direct HUD to promulgate regulations that:

• require an initial lead-based paint hazard risk assessment before a family with a child under age six occupies certain housing, unless lead-based paint has already been removed; and
• state that a visual assessment is not sufficient for these purposes.

These regulations shall apply to housing receiving federal assistance that was constructed before 1978, but exclude:

• single-family housing covered by an application for mortgage insurance from the Federal Housing Administration, or
• multi-family housing covered by such an application but does not receive any other federal housing assistance.

HUD regulations shall also require emergency relocation of such families, without placement on a waitlist, penalty, or lapse in assistance, to another unit of covered housing that has no lead-based paint hazards.

The Government Accountability Office shall report to Congress on lead hazards in federally assisted housing.