H.R. 5437 — Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act

This section sets forth congressional findings that manufacturers and sellers of stone slab products (e.g., for kitchen countertops) bear no liability for personal injuries from respirable silica dust exposure during unsafe third-party fabrication, despite federal (29 C.F.R. § 1910.1053) and state (e.g., California Labor Code § 5204) workplace safety regulations intended to mitigate such risks. The section states the purposes of the Act, including prohibiting such civil actions, preserving consumer access to these products and the industry's employment of tens of thousands of Americans, preventing burdens on interstate and foreign commerce, and invoking Congress's authority under the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

This section prohibits the bringing of qualified civil actions in any federal or state court and requires the dismissal, as soon as practicable after the date of enactment, of any such actions pending on that date.

This section defines terms used in the Act, including (1) fabrication, as the process of altering a qualified product by cutting, drilling, shaping, polishing, grinding, or other means; (2) qualified civil action, as a civil action against a manufacturer or seller of a qualified product for injuries arising from or related to fabrication by another party, including exposure to respirable silica or other substances; (3) qualified product, as a stone slab product—including those made with quartz, mineral, crystal, glass, porcelain, or other stone, ceramic, or similar material—that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce; (4) seller, as an importer, distributor, retailer, or supplier of a qualified product; and (5) State, to include the states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, other U.S. territories or possessions, and their political subdivisions.