First Update of Child Lead Limitations in Seventeen Years

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Keith Ellison’s (D-Minneapolis) bill to protect children from lead exposure living in (HUD) housing passed the House of Representatives in the closing hours of the session. The Lead Safe Housing Act of 2008 (H.R. 6309) requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to update its blood lead intervention regulations to coincide with the standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which lowers the mandatory intervention threshold from 20 micrograms of lead to 10 micrograms. The bill passed the House by a voice vote.

At the same time the federal government is bailing out a banking industry reeling from the real estate collapse, it's also taking some less-heralded but significant consumer protection steps aimed at the industry's cash cow: credit cards.