By: George Cooper, FHBA 2nd Vice President
NAHB reports that there were 800 of its members in Washington meeting with their congressmen on June 14th and 15th. That included a contingent from Florida and we met with both of our senators and most of our representatives about issues that affect the home building industry.
Our top priority was the renewal of the federal flood insurance program. It is vital to our members that a predictable and affordable national flood insurance program remain in effect.
We also pressed our congressmen to support a stable and sustainable lumber market. That includes right-sizing tarriffs and harvesting our own timber using best management practices.
NAHB studies have found that the average cost of government regulation is 25% of the purchase price of a new home, 60% of which occurs in the land development stage. We asked our congressmen to support regulatory reduction of any kind. In each meeting that I was present, I asked our congressman to support dramatic reform of the Waters of the Unites States executive order from president Obama that president Trump set aside for further review. In my opinion, WOTUS is the greatest taking of property rights and states rights in my generation.
Concerning governance, NAHB proposed a new structure to reduce the board of directors from over 2,000 to approximately 75. NAHB also reported on their new proposed membership dues calculation. Both of these proposals will be further addressed at the IBS board meeting in January, 2018. We had an opportunity to observe the candidates for NAHB Third Vice Chairman and it is clear to me that we need to financially support and show up at IBS, 2018 to vote for our own Chuck Fowke.
We come to building association events to help fight for our right to build an affordable American home for our customers. We face the threat of expanding government and increased regulation in every aspect of our industry and as small business operators. We must maintain and fight for our right to build and we do that by empowering the NAHB staff to fight on our behalf.