The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation formally announced Thursday morning that a hearing on tainted Chinese drywall will take place next week on Capitol Hill.

The hearing will be held Thursday at 10:30 a.m. by the committee's Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, who has been outspoken regarding the issue of defective drywall, sits on the subcommittee, and his office has been working to arrange the hearing for several weeks. The subcommittee is chaired by Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor.

Christopher Day, Nelson's legislative counsel, said the witness list is being formulated, and that Nelson's office is in contact with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Florida Department of Health regarding potential officials from those agencies who may be asked to participate.

Nelson is also trying to arrange for affected homeowners to testify. One of them is likely to be Kristin Culliton, a Lakewood Ranch homeowner who the Herald-Tribune reported on this year. Her Taylor Morrison house in the Greenbrook neighborhood has experienced extensive corrosion and foul odors tied to Chinese drywall manufactured by Knauf Tianjin.

Nelson visited Culliton's home last month during a tour of several homes built with tainted Chinese drywall. Nelson said he began to feel sinus and respiratory discomfort after spending time inside her house.

Nelson, along with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has introduced legislation calling for immediate testing to determine the effects of the drywall and for a recall of the tainted material to be issued by the CPSC.

Both senators, along with Rep. Robert Wexler on the House side, have also asked Congress to include $2 million in emergency funding for expedited testing.

The potential scope of the Chinese drywall problem could be huge. A Feb. 1 Herald-Tribune analysis of shipping records found that more than 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall entered the country through more than a dozen U.S. ports since 2006, enough to build 60,000 average-sized homes.

At least two American drywall manufacturers are also in disputes with Florida homeowners about corrosion and odors in their homes, which contain only domestic wallboard. Both domestic producers, Charlotte, N.C.-based National Gypsum and Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific, have denied their products are to blame.