ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 417

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: FEBRUARY 22, 1996

 

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 417 (1R).

      Assembly Bill No. 417 (1R). prohibits the sale of seating furniture for use in public occupancy areas and facilities that does not meet certain flammability standards.

      The Division of Fire Safety in the Department of Community Affairs is to promulgate rules and regulations establishing the flammability standards and testing procedures that all seating furniture for public occupancy areas and facilities must meet in order to be sold in New Jersey. The rules and regulations are to be consistent with the State of California bulletin entitled Flammability Test Procedure For Use in Public Occupancies until a national standard is adopted.

      The bill requires that seating furniture which conforms to the flammability standards set forth in the rules and regulations exhibit a permanently attached label, indicating that the article meets those standards.

      The provisions of the bill apply to public occupancies which are defined in the bill as State, county and municipal correctional institutions, health care facilities, nursing care and convalescent homes, child day care centers, public auditoriums and stadiums, and public assembly areas of hotels and motels containing more than 10 articles of seating furniture.

      

FISCAL IMPACT:

      In the fiscal note to similar legislation last session (A-696), the Department of Community Affairs stated that the bill should have no effect on State revenues since the California standards already exist and all that would be required of the department is to adopt them. The bill would not require additional inspection costs since public occupancies are already subject to State inspections.