On March 8, HUD sent a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that would amend HUD’s Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention regulations. The title of the proposed rule is “Notification, Evaluation and Reduction of Lead-Based Paint Hazards in Federally Owned Residential Property and Housing Receiving Federal Assistance; Response to Elevated Blood Lead Level.” While at OMB, the text of the proposed rule is not open for public review.
However, in a March 10 letter to advocates, HUD states that the proposed rule would achieve two objectives designed to provide greater protection for children under the age of six who reside in HUD-assisted units and other federally assisted or owned housing. First, the rule would formally adopt the Center for Disease Control’s 2012 definition of an elevated blood level of five micrograms per deciliter in children under the age of six as a trigger for environmental investigation. HUD notes that its notices of funding availability (NOFAs) since 2013 have used this definition. Second, the rule would establish more comprehensive testing and evaluation procedures for HUD and other federally assisted or owned housing in which children with elevated blood lead levels reside.
HUD officials hope that the rule will clear OMB by early June.
The March 10 letter is in response to a February 11 petition for rulemaking seeking to update HUD’s lead-based paint regulations. The petition for rulemaking was drafted by staff at the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. NLIHC and 27 other organizations signed on to the petition for rulemaking.
The March 10 HUD letter is at: http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Response_Benfer-Walz_LSHR-petition_031016.pdf
The February 11 petition for rulemaking is at: http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Petition_Rulemaking-24-CFR-35_021116.pdf