According to a story by Mary Orndorff at The Birmingham News, the proposal, from U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, had bipartisan support and now goes to the House floor, where it has been well-received in years past but never advanced in the Senate.
The April 27 tornado outbreak in Alabama where 244 people died may give the proposal new momentum.
The House Financial Services Committee, where Bachus is chairman, approved it unanimously this morning after he reminded them that 100 people in his district died that day, although the deaths came in all types of homes, including site-built.
Bachus' committee has jurisdiction over safety issues in manufactured housing.
"They are essentially safe but their greatest vulnerability today in the South is the tornado," Bachus said before the vote.
Cost estimates for including the NOAA radios in the mobile homes ranged from $11 per radio to $45, Bachus said, but he considered the cost insignificant compared to the lives that could be saved by giving people enough warning to seek shelter.
The manufactured housing industry has disagreed with being singled out for the radio requirement. But Bachus said today that there was no overt opposition to his legislation, and he said he hoped local or state governments might be inspired to consider altering their local building codes to require the alert radios.
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