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ICC GOVERNMENT RELATIONS NEWS

Government Relations Highlights — September

August certainly brought with it some very vivid reminders about the importance of strong building codes – the earthquakes in Colorado and Virginia, as well as Hurricane Irene – and the Government Relations department was there, right in the thick of the response.

• Government Relations Senior Vice President Sara Yerkes sent personal letters to all of the states that were affected by Hurricane Irene, reaffirming ICC’s commitment to assisting them in their rebuilding efforts and offering training and disaster mitigation where necessary.
• Seniors officials from FEMA’s building sciences and insurance and mitigation departments met with Sara Yerkes and Federal Relations Vice President Dave Karmol to discuss FEMA’s programs, support for the I-Codes, including new IgCC, training, and its new publications involving technical guidance on construction in at-risk areas for both wind and seismic activity, which reference both the I-Codes as well as ICC standards such as ICC-500, the storm shelter standard. FEMA also took the opportunity to reaffirm its standing Memorandum of Understanding with ICC, and we look forward to a fruitful partnership with them in ensuring buildings are both safe and sustainable.
• In internal news, the Major Jurisdictions Committee has reached over 50 enrolled members, including Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The Major Jurisdiction Committee is open to representatives of state code enforcement agencies, the capital city of each state, the two largest jurisdictions in each state and jurisdictions with a population of 1,000,000 or more.
• The Government Relations department, led by Bruce Johnson, Mel Cosgrove and Dave Nichols attended the 2011 Fire-Rescue International convention at the Georgia World Congress Center attending many of the activities as possible.
• The Government Relations department, lead by Justin Wiley and Bruce Johnson, received grant funding through the Department of Energy to support the Hydrogen Industry Panel on Codes which is currently coordinating of codes and standards relating to the use of hydrogen. The panel is expected to submit code change proposals for the 2015 code revision cycle.
• Federal Relations Vice President Dave Karmol will be presenting the IECC and IgCC to the participants of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Workshop to Identify Strategies to Get to Net Zero Energy Homes later this month. He will join an impressive lineup of presenters from the Department of Energy, AIA and ASTM International.
• In cooperation with the American Gas Association (AGA), the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), and others, we reviewed parts of the 674 page Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades prepared by NREL/DOE, and submitted comments prepared by our Technical Staff. While DOE has described the Workforce Guidelines as “voluntary,” we are concerned that many of the guidelines describe construction practices and building elements that are inconsistent with, or in conflict with, IRC and IECC requirements.

GR was also monitoring the Flood Insurance legislation in the Senate, following House passage of HR 1309, the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011, that included both a FEMA study to examine the effect of requiring building code compliance as an element of flood plain criteria, and inclusion of code administration in the list of eligible CDBG grants. GR is working to have both provisions included in the Senate bill.