Text for H.R. 2328 has now been posted online for The Lead Exposure Reduction Amendments Act of 2015, which was introduced in the House on May 14.
The bill is described as similar to a bill introduced (but never enacted) in the last Congress, as well as a Senate bill introduced in 2013.
A key provision in the bill gives building owners the right to "authorize a contractor to forgo compliance" of the EPA's Lead: Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) rule. Owners may only do so if (as stated in the bill):
- the renovation or remodeling project is to be carried out at the residential dwelling in which the owner resides;
- no pregnant woman or child under the age of 6 resides in the residential dwelling as of the date on which the renovation or remodeling project commences, or will reside in the residential dwelling for the duration of such project; and
- the owner acknowledges that, in carrying out the project, such contractor will be exempt from the requirements of a renovation and remodeling regulation.
According to Craig Webb, editor of Remodeling, the EPA had planned to include the opt-out provision, but removed it from the final rule. H.R.2328 would direct the EPA to restore that opt-out provision. It also presses the EPA to approve a test kit that meets its own standards for avoiding false positives, and it would bar extension of the EPA to commercial structures as now is being contemplated.
