The U.S. House of Representatives is about to begin consideration of EPA's 2012 budget. As you know, a WDMA-supported amendment sponsored by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) was added to the EPA's appropriations bill (H.R. 2584) at the committee level which would withhold enforcement and implementation funding of EPA's Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting (LRRP) Rule until EPA meets its own regulations by approving a commercially-available lead test kit that meets the criteria EPA set out in the LRRP.
Under the LRRP Rule, EPA was supposed to have approved a commercially-available lead test kit which produced no more than ten percent false positives and five percent false negatives. Currently no such kit is available on the market, with some current kits producing false positives as high as 60 percent, thereby forcing LRRP compliance and the additional costs upon thousands of consumers in homes that otherwise would have tested negative. The replacement and retrofit market has been one of the few bright spots for our industry in this housing recession. The problem with lead test kits only serves to discourage more homeowners from undertaking necessary energy-efficient improvements and unfairly labels some homes as having a lead hazard, which can create additional liability for the homeowner and impact the home's value.
TAKE ACTION: There will no doubt be an attempt to try and strip the amendment from the legislation during floor consideration of the bill. Now is the time to contact your House member and urge them to support the Rehberg Amendment (Section 450 of H.R. 2584) and oppose any attempts to remove it from the bill.
Click here to quickly send an email message to your House member or call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your House member's office. Then ask to speak to their appropriations aide. |
