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New Legislation Aims to Boost Community Resilience

By ANGLE Staff posted 05-13-2016 11:53 AM

  

New Legislation Aims to Boost Community Resilience

 

This past Tuesday, Congressman Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Congressman Albio Sires (D-NJ) took a major step toward reducing disaster impacts and saving lives by introducing H.R. 5177, the National Mitigation Investment Act of 2016. This legislation would reform federal disaster programs to increase focus on pre-disaster mitigation and resilient construction. 

By providing an additional 4 percent in post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grants to states with qualifying building code systems, the National Mitigation Investment Act will provide a powerful incentive for states to take preventative steps before disaster strikes to save lives and property. The bill will also reduce barriers to enacting strong building codes by creating a pilot program to award code enforcement grants to states and localities on a competitive basis. This is an important bipartisan step toward protecting U.S. citizens’ lives and dollars from natural disasters.

In order to promote this legislation, Rep. Curbelo testified Thursday on the importance of investing in pre-disaster mitigation before the House Subcommittee on Emergency Management at a hearing entitled “Controlling the Rising Cost of Federal Responses to Disaster.” BuildStrong Coalition Executive Committee Member Eric Nelson also testified on how our nation can deal with disasters proactively and responsibly. BuildStrong is a broad coalition of national business and consumer organizations, designers, and emergency management officials dedicated to promoting stronger building codes. As a member of the BuildStrong Coalition, AIA is working as a partner in this effort.

See AIA’s press release here: http://www.aia.org/press/AIAB108849

More about the BuildStrong Coalition here: http://buildstrongamerica.com/about-us/

 

Ian McTiernan, Manager, Federal Relations

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