by Rebecca Walker — May 29, 2009—The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) applauded legislation introduced by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Michael Arcuri (D-NY) encouraging the adoption and enforcement of statewide building codes throughout the nation.
IBHS has been a leader in using building science to develop real-world approaches to reduce the risks posed by natural disasters and other perils. Events in recent years have given IBHS researchers opportunities for field work, during which they have learned a great deal about how to better engineer structures against certain risks.
IBHS supports the federal legislation (HR 2592, the Safe Building Code Act), which was developed by the Building Code Coalition (BCC), a group created by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) to draft a law giving incentives to states to create or better enforce statewide building codes.
State standards for construction, code-related inspection, and enforcement vary widely from state to state. An effective way to incentivize states to strengthen and enforce building codes is to increase the amount of post-disaster mitigation aid a state can receive following a natural disaster based upon whether that state has adopted and enforced stronger statewide building codes, says IBHS.
Under the proposed legislation, 13 states would qualify for the additional monies, while 10 additional states could qualify with minor legislative modifications. Another eight states have adopted statewide codes, but lack enforcement authorization.
For more information, see the IBHS Web site.
