Biden Administration Walks Back Stricter Safety Rules For Public Housing
NBC reports that the original HUD proposal, released in July 2020, required at least one fire extinguisher per floor, calling it a “life-threatening issue.” The agency has since eliminated the requirement and will only consider fire extinguishers to be missing if there is “evidence of prior installation,” such as a bracket on the wall.
NBC News:
Biden Administration Weakens Some Proposed Safety Rules For Public Housing, Alarming Advocates
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has backed away from new health and safety requirements for public housing that would require fire extinguishers, a minimum number of electrical outlets and other measures intended to protect residents from serious and potentially life-threatening hazards, according to the latest draft of the new standards. Housing industry groups had urged HUD to ease some of these requirements, saying they would be too burdensome for landlords — alarming some tenant advocates who were caught off guard by the recent changes. (Khimm, 7/14)
South Bend Tribune:
From Fire Hazards To Roaches: South Bend Housing Authority Sites Are Among Indiana's Worst
Hundreds of violations found in South Bend include those classified as "life-threatening" by HUD, such as fire and electrical hazards. In 2020, inspectors found exposed electrical wiring, missing smoke detectors and sprinklers, bed-bug infestations and roaches, among other issues. (Parrott, Redsten and McKenna, 7/12)
KARE11.com:
High-Rise Apartment Buildings In Minnesota Must Have Sprinklers Installed By 2033
Public housing agencies in Minnesota will have 12 years at the most to add fire sprinklers to older residential towers, as part of a bill lawmakers passed in June. Rep. Mohamud Noor, the chief author of the sprinkler bill in the House, started working on the issue on Nov. 27, 2019, the same day five of his constituents lost their lives in an early morning fire at Cedar High apartments. (Croman, 7/15)
In updates on veterans' health care —
The Washington Post:
Multi-Billion-Dollar Records System For Veterans Halted Due To Serious Flaws.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough on Wednesday acknowledged fundamental flaws in the agency’s troubled $16 billion effort to modernize veterans’ medical records, a project championed by former president Donald Trump and his son-in-law that is beset by cost overruns, delays, misrepresentations to Congress and a disastrous rollout at its first hospital. McDonough told Senate lawmakers that a three-month internal review of the electronic health records system found so many structural problems that he cannot continue to deploy it at other hospitals until VA leaders are confident of success. He could not say when the rollout will resume. (Rein, 7/14)
And the Justice Department criticizes the FBI's investigation of Larry Nassar —
Politico:
Report Blasts FBI's Handling Of Sexual-Abuse Allegations Against Gymnastics Doctor
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog issued a scathing report Wednesday blasting the FBI for “multiple failures and policy violations” during early inquiries into allegations of sexual abuse by Larry Nassar, who eventually admitted to serial sexual assault of girls in the USA Gymnastics program. “The OIG found that, despite the extraordinarily serious nature of the allegations and the possibility that Nassar’s conduct could be continuing, senior officials in the FBI Indianapolis Field Office failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies,” the long-awaited report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded. (Gerstein, 7/14)
The Wall Street Journal:
FBI Agents Disregarded Gymnasts’ Complaints About Nassar, Then Made False Statements To Cover Mistakes, Report Says
FBI agents disregarded allegations by Olympic gymnasts that they were sexually assaulted by former national team doctor Larry Nassar and later made false statements to cover their mistakes, Justice Department investigators said Wednesday in a long-awaited report on the bureau’s handling of one of the biggest abuse cases in U.S. sports history. The Justice Department’s inspector general detailed multiple failings in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s response to the gymnasts’ complaints, which were first brought into the Indianapolis field office on July 28, 2015, by USA Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body. For more than a year after that, the bureau did almost nothing in response. (Radnofsky and O'Brien, 7/14)
