On the recordDecember 30, 2012
I thank Chairman Terry very much for yielding and my friend and colleague, the gentlelady from New York, for your support of this good bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Drywall Safety Act of 2012, as amended. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on really what is much-needed and commonsense legislation that's going to come before the House tonight. For nearly 4 years, families across the country have suffered from the harmful effects of defective Chinese-manufactured drywall. They're friends and neighbors, and they're families, Mr. Speaker, who worked hard and saved and really set out for that classic American Dream to own their own home or to finish their retirement years in a home, and yet that dream turned into a literal nightmare when their home was filled with a mysterious and foul rotten egg type of odor. I've been in these homes. It completely makes the home uninhabitable. It takes all the copper wiring in the home and basically turns it into black soot. They have to replace the compressors on the air conditioners. And even worse is that their health deteriorates. They turn first to the builders. The builders are not covered by their insurance. Some were able to help out the homeowners and renovate the home on their own, but many are not able to do that, and some builders have gone out of business. They turned then to the manufacturer of the contaminated drywall in China, but really have no recourse there.…
