Congress Aims to Solve National Bed Bug Crisis

The United States House of Representatives is currently considering the bill H.R. 6068 titled The Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008. Thats right, no issue is too small for the United States government!

The act aims to appropriate grant money to state governments in order to "conduct inspections of lodging facilities" among other things. The bill cites seven findings that are used as justification for the money and time spent on this project:

(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 bed bugs, 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) bed bugs possess all of the necessary prerequisites for being capable of passing diseases from one host to another.

Public Domain

Cimex lectularius, more frequently known as the bed bug, lives off the blood of human beings

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According to an unscientific poll on WashingtonWatch.com 90% of voters are against Congress spending the money to fight the insidious bed bug threat. One commenter, for instance, said, "This isn't really a joke, is it? Oh my. A Federal Government confiscating the property of its citizens to fund a war against... bed bugs. How constitutional." While another ponders, "Have I slipped into an alternate universe?" Still, there are some who believe that it is necessary for the government to fund a War on Bed Bugs. One commenter in particular believes that "This is a really important bill" and that "Bed bugs are spreading fast and anyone who has had them in their homes would tell you they are a nightmare which can take months and thousands of dollars to get rid of." But one question still remains, oh gracious commenter: Should the taxpayers be forced to foot the bill for that removal?