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That’s right. There is an act in Congress that would require public housing agencies to submit bedbug inspection plans to the federal government. This would add bedbugs to the rodent and cockroach program in the Department of Health and Human Services. Research would be required of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is a valid need to research bedbugs’ impact on the public mental health. People have been having anxiety, insomnia, feeling shamed because bedbugs have invaded their homes even though they are “clean” freaks, and the incessant annoyance of itchy red welts on the skin should bedbugs come in contact with their bodies.

Democratic Representative G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina just introduced legislation that would authorize $50 million that’s already in the budget of the Department of Commerce to train health inspectors how to recognize the signs of these nasty pests. His co-sponsors include Reps. Don Young, Republican from Alaska, Ben Chandler, Democrat from Kentucky, Bobby L. Rush, Democrat from Illinois, Betty McCollum, Democrat from Minnesota, Corrine Brown, Democrat from Florida, Steven Cohen, Democrat from Tennessee, Brad Miller, Democrat from North Carolina, and Eddie Bernice Johnson, Democrat from Texas. Butterfield has also gotten support from the National Pest Management Association. The NPMA stated that bedbug calls to pest control companies are up 70% in the past 5 years. Pesticides from years ago were able to kill off the bedbugs, but the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) discontinued certain pesticides because they were felt to be too hazardous. Bedbugs have built up a tolerance to the pesticides used today by most exterminators. More research needs to be done to have a better plan of attack to keep the bedbugs from becoming a worldwide infestation.