You can’t make this stuff up.
Alaska’s lone congressman cosponsored a bill last week to provide help to the states to inspect hotels and motels for bed bugs. Chief sponsor is Rep. G. K. Butterfield of North Carolina. H.R. 6068 was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The title: The Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008.
While an Alaskan newspaper noticed the bill, neither chief sponsor Butterfield nor any cosponsor submitted a statement accompanying introduction, nor have they put out a press release. The blog NY vs Bed Bugs is all over it already.
Funny title but serious business? Can’t tell. Watch that space.
Full text of the bill below the fold.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Dr. Bumsted.
Here is the full text of the bill, from Thomas, the Library of Congress’s legislative tracking service:
Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)
HR 6068 IH
110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6068
To establish a grant program to assist States in inspecting hotel rooms for bed bugs .
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 15, 2008
Mr. BUTTERFIELD (for himself, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. MATSUI, and Mr. JEFFERSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To establish a grant program to assist States in inspecting hotel rooms for bed bugs .
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Don’t Let the BedBugsBite Act of 2008′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that–
(1) on February 12, 2008, a thorough inspection of a hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire, found that 16 of 117 rooms were infested with bedbugs;
(2) cimex lectularius, commonly known as bedbugs , travel through the ventilation systems in multi-unit establishments causing exponential infestations;
(3) female bedbugs can lay up to 5 eggs in a day and 500 during a lifetime;
(4) bedbug populations in the United States have increased by 500 percent in the past few years;
(5) in 2004, New York City had 377 bedbug violations and from July to November of 2005, a 5-month span, there were 449 violations reported in the city, an alarming increase in infestations over a short period of time;
(6) in a study of 700 hotel rooms between 2002 and 2006, 25 percent of hotels were found to be in need of bedbug treatment; and
(7) bedbugs possess all of the necessary prerequisites for being capable of passing diseases from one host to another.
SEC. 3. BED BUG INSPECTION GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) Administration; Amount- The Secretary of Commerce, in cooperation with the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, may provide grants to an eligible State to assist such State in carrying out the inspections described in subsection (c). The grants shall be in amounts determined by the Secretary, taking into consideration the relative needs of the State.
(b) Eligibility- A State is eligible for a grant under this Act if the State has established a program whereby not fewer than 20 percent of rooms in lodging facilities in such State are inspected annually for cimex lectularius, commonly know as the bed bug. The Federal share of funding for such a program shall not exceed 80 percent.
(c) Use of Grants- A State may use a grant received under this Act to–
(1) conduct inspections of lodging facilities for cimex lectularius, including transportation, lodging, and meal expenses for inspectors;
(2) train inspection personnel; and
(3) educate the proprietors and staff of lodging establishments about methods to prevent and eradicate cimex lectularius.
(d) Application- To receive a grant under this Act, an eligible State shall submit an application to the Secretary of Commerce in such form and containing such information as the Secretary shall determine.
(e) Definition of Lodging Facility- For purposes of this Act and the requirement under subsection (b) for State programs receiving funding under this Act, the term `lodging facility’ means any individual hotel, motel, or inn that makes available for commercial lodging more than 10 individual rooms.
(f) Authorization of Appropriations- There is authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 through 2012 to the Secretary of Commerce for the grants authorized under this Act.
SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
The Secretary of Commerce shall transmit a report to Congress not later than 3 years after the issuance of the first grant authorized under this Act, which shall contain an assessment of the effectiveness of the grant program.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
I think that the terroist brought them to the US and decided to let them multiply and then release them.
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bed bugs are not just strange, their, pesky and they get in your nerve until you get rid of them permanently. by permanently, what i mean is to get them all including those nymphs and eggs so nothing else from those will replace your kills.
I even made a little research about them just to get them all out of the house, totally and permanently.
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[…] the story is being picked up. Predictably, there is cautious skepticism, outright snark, and the inevitable “it’s not a joke” statement from the […]
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Bedbugs are in fact making a resurgence across the US in the last 2 or 3 years, sadly. You can even record encounters with them here: http://bedbugregistry.com/
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