Bill would reform EPA Lead Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting (LRRP) Rule is the subject of a bill in the House.

Congressman Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and 21 co-sponsors introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that was crafted to reduce the burden of the regulation. 

The Lead Exposure Reduction Amendments Act of 2013 (H.R. 2093) would restore an opt-out provision from the original rule. The opt-out rule allowed homeowners without children under six or without pregnant women in residence to allow their contractor to forego the rigorous work practices required under the original rule. 

The EPA has estimated that the removal of the opt-out clause adds more than $336 million per year in compliance costs. 

Another provision calls for suspension of the rule for owner-occupied housing built between 1960 and 1978 without a pregnant woman or small child present, if the EPA cannot approve a test kit meeting its standard for false positives. The bill would also prohibit expansion of the rule to commercial buildings and provide certain exemptions for first-time paperwork violations. 

The introduction of the bill was applauded by the the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association. A Senate version of this legislation was introduced as S.484 by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) in March.

“This industry faced some tough years when the housing market crashed, and retrofit and remodeling work was critical in keeping some dealers in business,” said NLBMDA chairman Chuck Bankston, president of Bankston Lumber in Barnesville, Ga. "EPA's forceful focus on paperwork violations, failure to approve a lead test kit meeting its own standards, and ever-broadening interpretation of the rule is having a chilling effect on our industry's ability to have installed sales operations, serve remodelers and get energy-efficient products into homes. We applaud Congressman Murphy for his continued leadership on this issue, and we will make H.R. 2093 a top legislative priority." 

In addition to Rep. Murphy, the original cosponsors of H.R. 2093 are Reps. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), Tim Griffin (R-Ark.), Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), Ralph Hall (R-Texas), Steve King (R-Iowa), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Robert Latta (R-Ohio), Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), Billy Long (R-Mo.), Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Rich Nugent (R-Fla.), Pete Olson (R-Texas), Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga).