Compressed Gas Cylinder Safety and Oversight Improvements Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. BALDERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the Compressed Gas Cylinder Safety and Oversight Improvements Act.

Mr. Speaker, for far too long, manufacturers in Ohio and across the Nation have had to compete on an unfair playing field. This bill restores fairness for American producers by cracking down on the import of counterfeit and dangerous gas cylinders into the United States.

My bill also holds foreign manufacturers to the same safety and inspection standards that domestic manufacturers are already required to meet.

Simply put, there is no reason that the United States Government should make it easier to manufacture these critical products abroad than it is to produce them here at home.

To be sold in interstate commerce, the Department of Transportation requires compressed gas cylinders to be manufactured to specific standards and properly stamped. Currently, the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, inspects facilities in the United States at least once per year to ensure compliance with safety requirements. However, for cylinders manufactured in foreign countries and then sold and imported into the United States, PHMSA only inspects those facilities once every 5 years.

Over time, certain foreign producers have deliberately evaded safety and regulatory standards to gain a competitive advantage over domestic producers, potentially jeopardizing public safety in the process.

This bill ensures that PHMSA has the necessary tools to conduct more frequent inspections at foreign manufacturing facilities and to hold bad actors accountable.

I thank my friend, the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, for his support in moving this bill forward. I also thank my colleague from Illinois (Mr. Krishnamoorthi), my co- lead on this legislation, for his partnership and commitment to advancing this important legislation.

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