Bill Nelson

Meaningful steps have been taken by Senator Bill Nelson, Congressman Robert Wexler and others in Congress to prevent this from happening again.

Are you working with Customs and Border Protection to obtain this information of how much of this stuff was imported?

Three, possibly four, Chinese drywall specimens have been identified--Dragon, Tashon, and CNM--and they are associated with the Chinese National Building Materials Company.

I would just strongly encourage our Federal and State folks to really work together and get to a good understanding of what we're dealing with here.

Is it possible that the Chinese company would have recycled old gypsum board as part of the production process for this so-called new wallboard?

I would like to thank Senator Nelson and his staff for answering our pleas for help.

I can assure you they are going to be educated, by the time they get confirmed, about Chinese drywall.

I am deeply appreciative of the attention given to this issue by Senator Nelson, Congressman Wexler and others.

I want you all to do--I won't take this stuff out, because I was handling it all of yesterday.

I want to see, first of all, why we have not had responsiveness from the EPA.

Such tests would allow the Federal Government to fully understand the scope of the health and public safety risks posed by this product.

This testing is scheduled to begin during the first week of June.

So, you're going to have the leadership that is going to try to tackle this issue.

We respectfully request that the Committee include $2 million for the CPSC to fully investigate and evaluate the defective drywall.

Letters from Governor Crist on April 3 and 29 to the heads of the EPA, CDC, and CPSC, in addition to inquiries from Senator Nelson have prompted clear commitments from the U.S. EPA and the CPSC.

Here is some Chinese drywall for you. It is not painted.

But, were something to happen like that, whereby we didn't get it through the supplemental appropriations bill, it is our expectation, within the monies that you have in your two respective agencies, that you'll go on and get this next…

The U.S. Government, in its role as a protector of consumers, has got to do its job, and to do it swiftly and accurately.

You understand that I don't want words, I want action.

Now, I think, Ms. Southerland, you get the gist, that in an emergency letter that comes to you, a reply, two and a half months later, is not acceptable.

I just received word that they are working out that our $2 million for this next round of testing is going to be in the supplemental bill that we're going to pass today on appropriations.

Thank you for your consideration of this important request.

So much so that I went in homes that had the coils replaced three times on their air-conditioners.

I've been in several of these homes, and what you see here are coils on an air-conditioner.

I just wanted to show you some of the evidence of what's happening in the homes.