Current Federal Legislation
ICC Legislation Tracker
Below, you'll find the federal legislation the staff in D.C. is keeping tabs on. Click on the name of the bill to expand it for additional details. Please reach out to jkarson@iccsafe.org if you have any questions about ICC's Federal engagement.
The Code Council led an organizational sign-on letter to the congressional committees that oversee FEMA’s programs requesting, as part of reconciliation legislation, $300 million in dedicated funding to enable FEMA to more effectively support the adoption, implementation, and enforcement of hazard resistant building codes and standards. The Code Council is among 50 signatories representing state and local, emergency response, housing, manufacturing, contractor, insurance, energy efficiency, engineering, design, and resilience interests.
The Code Council led a letter to Congressional leadership urging that future federal infrastructure investments at minimum adhere to current building codes and standards, which ensure buildings are constructed to withstand natural hazards, conserve energy, and keep occupants safe. More than 60 organizations joined the Code Council in supporting this effort.
The Code Council is leading an effort to ensure federal infrastructure investments require the application of the latest building codes, such as the International Codes. Codes and Standards Infrastructure Sign on Letter.
The Rebuild America’s Schools Act (RASA) of 2019 (H.R. 865), which creates a $70 billion grant program and $30 billion tax credit bond program targeted to help address significant health and safety challenges in public schools, is part of this effort. The bill requires that repairs, renovations and new construction adhere to the latest model building codes and energy conservation codes, as well as WaterSense performance criteria within national model codes. Through these measures, the bill ensures that the federal government’s considerable investment into public schools leverages best practices in hazard mitigation, energy conservation and water efficiency.
On October 5, 2018, the President signed into law the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA) as a section within a broader package of legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration's activities (H.R. 302). The International Code Council worked closely with its members, partners, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Congress on this important legislation to support U.S. communities before and after a disaster. This groundbreaking legislation will benefit communities across America and provide additional incentives for jurisdictions to adopt and enforce the latest International Codes (I-Codes). In short, the DRRA:
- Provides additional resources for the implementation of building codes post disaster;
Roughly quadruples funding for competitive pre-disaster mitigation (PDM) grants for state, local, tribal and territorial governments; - Allows PDM funding to be used for I-Codes adoption and enforcement;
- Increases jurisdictions’ chances of receiving PDM awards based on their adoption and enforcement of the latest edition of the I-Codes;
- And, codifies FEMA’s requirement that federally assisted facility repair and rebuilding efforts post-disaster be done to the Code Council’s latest building codes.