Thank you for your advocacy! Following the outpour of grassroots efforts, Congressional leaders have agreed to wait until November 11 to vote on H.R. 3702. Their vote would have included an amendment that punishes states that have not adopted the latest edition of the International Code Council (ICC) Residential Code, which will cause these states to forgo Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR) funding.
H.R. 3702, entitled: “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2019” by Congressman Al Green, as introduced, seeks to codify several practices currently used by HUD to administer the CDBG-DR, which provides grants to help cities, counties, and states recover from presidentially declared disasters. The bill attempts to make the allocation of appropriated disaster relief funds more efficient, as well as CDBG-DR information more accessible to localities.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently informed members of hostile language added by the House Majority that would prohibit states like Florida, who have not adopted the latest edition of the ICC Residential Code, from receiving any CDBG-DR funds. This amendment would be detrimental to our industry and our partners across the country because it would withhold crucial CDBG-DR funds that are critical to rebuilding communities following a disaster and withholding these funds would increase the price of all housing construction.
Simply put, the goal of the unfriendly amendment is to force us into adopting the latest edition of the ICC.
It is important to remember that the ICC is a “model code” and was never intended to be adopted “as is.” States must retain the ability to choose relevant parts to add to their existing base code.
Since Florida’s move to adopting the previous Florida code as its base model and then adopting relevant parts of the ICC, we have experienced great efficiencies by allowing ourselves to concentrate on provisions that are directly related to our state.
Stay tuned for updates on this very important bill, as NAHB works to fix our concerns before November 11.