42 U.S.C. § 5403 — Construction and safety standards

The Secretary^* must establish appropriate Federal manufactured-home construction and safety standards by order. Each must be reasonable and practical, give a high level of protection consistent with this chapter, and be performance-based and objective unless that is clearly unsuitable. Except under subsection (b), the Secretary must use the consensus standards development process.

(a)(2) Within 180 days after December 27, 2000, the Secretary must contract with an administering organization. The initial contract ends when the later competitive contract begins and must require the organization to recommend the initial consensus-committee members and administer the consensus standards process and the consensus process for procedural, enforcement, and monitoring regulations until the contract ends. After the 4 years beginning when all committee members are appointed, the Secretary must use competitive procedures under 41 U.S.C. section 132 to award an administering-organization contract. That organization must administer development and interpretation of standards and those regulations. The Secretary must periodically review it and may competitively replace it with a qualified technical or building-code organization if, in writing, the organization is not meeting its agreement or contract or the agreement or contract ends.

(a)(3) The consensus committee is established to recommend periodic adoption, revision, and interpretation of Federal standards and procedural, enforcement, and monitoring regulations; operate fairly and allow public participation; and serve as an advisory committee^* not made up of Federal employees. It has 21 voting members appointed by the Secretary after considering the administering organization’s recommendations, plus one nonvoting Secretary representative. The Secretary must give written reasons for not appointing a recommended person. Appointments use ANSI-based consensus procedures, modified for equal representation by 7 producers or retailers, 7 consumer representatives including organizations, leaders, and residents, and 7 general-interest or public-official members. The Secretary must ensure fair participation without one interest dominating and may reject appointments to prevent dominance. “Dominance” means dominant authority, leadership, or influence because of superior leverage, strength, or representation. No consumer-category member, and three general-interest/public-official members, may have a significant financial interest in any part of the manufactured-housing industry or a significant relationship with someone in it. Those people may not receive industry compensation during membership or for 1 year afterward. The committee must give the Secretary advance meeting notice and publish it in the Federal Register; meetings are public. Attending members receive actual expenses allowed under 5 U.S.C. section 5703. The committee and administering organization must follow ANSI procedures and seek ANSI accreditation. On request, the organization must provide reasonable staff and timely, reasonably priced technical support needed for informed participation. Initial appointments must finish within 90 days after the initial contract.

(a)(4) Starting when all members are appointed, at least once every 2 years the committee must consider standard revisions and, if two-thirds approve, send proposed revised standards to the Secretary as a proposed rule with an economic analysis. The Secretary must publish them in the Federal Register within 30 days for notice and comment under 5 U.S.C. section 553, unless the Secretary rejects them. Comments go directly and promptly to the committee. If rejected, the Secretary must publish the rejected proposal, reasons, and any recommended changes. The Secretary must give the committee all comments, views, and objections as received under ANSI procedures. The committee sends any revision it proposes to the Secretary, who within 30 calendar days must publish notice of the recommendations, their submission, and when they could take effect. The Secretary must again publish rejected proposals, reasons, and recommended changes.

(a)(5) The Secretary must adopt, change, or reject a committee-submitted standard within 12 months. If adopted, the Secretary issues and publishes a final order without further rulemaking. If rejected, the Secretary publishes notice and reasons. If modified, the Secretary publishes the proposed modification and reasons and allows public comment under section 553. A final standard takes effect under subsection (c).
(a)(6) If the Secretary misses that deadline, the Secretary must appear personally before the appropriate House and Senate housing and appropriations committees within 30 days after the deadline and explain the failure. Until appearing, the Secretary may not spend funds collected under this title above the inflation-indexed amount collected and spent in the fiscal year immediately before December 27, 2000, as determined by the Congressional Budget Office.
(a)(7) In consultation with the committee and using the paragraph (4) process, the Secretary must issue revised standards for homes without permanent chassis. The Secretary must establish a distinct Secretary-issued label, with its revenue deposited in the Manufactured Housing Fees Trust Fund, a data plate like 24 C.F.R. section 3280.5 or its successor, and an invoice notation distinguishing such homes from homes with permanent chassis.

(b) The Secretary may issue or revise procedural and enforcement regulations and may issue interpretive bulletins clarifying standards or such regulations. The committee may submit proposals. Before issuing one, the Secretary must submit it to the committee and allow 120 days for written comments; explain in writing any rejected significant comment; publish the proposal, comments, and response; and allow public comment under section 553. Within 120 days after receiving a committee proposal, the Secretary must approve it for publication and comment, or reject it, explain why in writing, and publish the rejected proposal, reasons, and recommended changes. If written action is needed because the committee has not made a timely recommendation or an emergency threatens public health or safety, the Secretary may issue an order outside these procedures after giving the committee a written description, reasons, and supporting documents and publishing the order after notice and comment. Policy, practice, or procedure statements that implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy and generally or particularly apply to standards, regulations, inspections, monitoring, or enforcement are subject to these procedures; a change violating them is void. Before the committee is appointed, the Secretary may issue proposed orders for new or revised standards through notice and comment without using these procedures.

(c) Each standards order must state^* an effective date between 180 days and 1 year after issuance, unless the Secretary finds an earlier or later date in the public interest and publishes reasons.
(d) While a Federal standard is effective, a State or political subdivision may not establish or keep a different standard for the same performance aspect of a covered home. Federal preemption must be read broadly to preserve uniform, comprehensive standards and Federal supervision. Subject to section 5404, a State may set and enforce standards for stabilizing and support systems and foundations for homes sited there, but those standards must fit this chapter’s purposes and the manufacturer’s design.
(e) In recommending, making, or interpreting standards and regulations, the committee and Secretary must consider available home construction and safety data, including research under this chapter and by private and governmental bodies; consult suitable State or interstate agencies and legislative committees; consider reasonableness for the home type or geographic region; consider likely public cost; and consider contribution to this chapter’s purposes.
(f) The Secretary must exclude a structure from this chapter if the manufacturer certifies in the required form that it is designed only for a site-built permanent foundation, is not designed to move after installation, is designed and made to a nationally recognized or equivalent local code, a generally equivalent State or local modular code, or the Secretary’s National Housing Act minimum property standards, and, to the manufacturer’s knowledge, is not intended for another foundation.
(g) Federal standards must include preemptive energy-conservation performance standards that are cost-effective and seek the lowest total construction and operating costs. They must consider manufactured-home design and factory methods and allow alternative practices^* whose estimated net energy use is no greater than the specified standards.
(h) The Secretary must develop a hardboard-panel-siding standard considering durability, life, consumer maintenance cost, and other subsection (e) information, after consulting the National Manufactured Home Advisory Council and National Commission on Manufactured Housing. It must provide mortgage-life durability with minimal maintenance, and the Secretary had to update the standard within 180 days after October 28, 1992.
(i)(1) Subject to subparagraph (B), within 1 year after July 11, 2026, each State must certify to the Secretary that its laws and regulations (i) treat a manufactured home equally with a manufactured home as the State defines and regulates it, and (ii) apply the same laws and regulations to a home without a permanent chassis as to one with one, including financing, title, insurance, manufacture, sale, taxes, transportation, installation, and other areas the Secretary, after committee consultation and approval, finds necessary. A State plan under section 5422(b) must include this certification and then needs no separate certification under this paragraph. A State with a biennial legislature has 2 years after July 11, 2026. The Secretary may not waive the prohibition in paragraph (5)(B) for a late certification unless approving it, but a State may still submit a late initial certification.
(2) If not in a State plan, the initial certification must use the Secretary’s form and include an official’s attestation that the State took steps to make it truthful, including changing the State-law definition of “manufactured home” and directing agencies to change regulatory definitions.
(3) Each year by a Secretary-set date, the State must recertify that the initial certification remains accurate and that new State laws or regulations since the prior certification do not change its truthfulness.
(4) The Secretary must publish and maintain in the Federal Register and HUD website a list of States current on required certifications.
(5)(A) “Covered manufactured home” means a home that (i) the State does not consider manufactured because it lacks a permanent chassis, (ii) meets section 5402’s definition, and (iii) was built after July 11, 2026. (B) If a State misses an initial or annual certification deadline, then, where the State administers installation, the State must prohibit manufacture, installation, or sale of the covered home there; where the Secretary administers installation, both the State and Secretary must impose that prohibition.