U.S. House OKs pool-safety legislation based on Florida law

Anxious to protect young children from drowning, the House passed a bill by voice vote on Tuesday to require anti-entrapment drain covers on new swimming pools and spas.

The pool-safety bill, modeled on a Florida law enacted in 2000, also encourages states to require enclosure fences and safety locks to prevent children from wandering into pools.

“We can prevent this. Drowning is the second leading cause of preventable deaths of children 1 to 14 years old in this entire country,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, who sponsored the state legislation as well as the bill in Congress.

The Senate is expected to approve a companion bill as early as next week.

The House bill is named after Virginia Graeme Baker, a 7-year-old girl who drowned after being trapped in the powerful suction of a whirlpool in 2002 despite attempts by family members to pull her from the drain.

Her grandfather, James Baker, an adviser to three presidents, lobbied Congress to approve the bill that passed Tuesday.

The legislation would provide $5 million a year for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to educate the public about pool-safety measures.

The bill also would set up a grant program to entice states to require fencing and safety locks.

The commission each year would divide another $5 million among states that impose the safety requirements.

Florida would need to adapt its 2000 law to qualify for the grants by including spas as well as swimming pools under state rules.

Owners of older drains would not be required to replace them, but the public education campaign would encourage installation of anti-entrapment covers.

For Wasserman Schultz, a mother with three young children in a state where pools are prevalent, water safety has become a personal cause and a rallying cry for supervising children.

The safety act was the first legislation she has sponsored since she was elected to Congress, not counting amendments, to pass the House.

“There are times when even the most vigilant parents will let a child slip out from under their view, and they accidentally fall in the water,” she warned the House. “I could stand here all day and still not adequately emphasize that parents must supervise their children whenever they are in or near water.”

Copyright 2007