Building Safety Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark Building Safety Month, to recognize the importance of building safety, and to congratulate the leadership of the International Code Council that develops and publishes the model building safety and energy efficiency model codes used in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and across the country. Increasingly, these codes, developed in the United States, are being adopted in other nations as a model of safe construction.

Every year, there are sobering reminders about the key role that building codes can have. Foreign nations still experience catastrophic losses of life and property due to natural events and poor construction practices. These losses have been greatly reduced in this country thanks to the adoption of sound building practices.

Deadly fires, tornados, windstorms, floods, earthquakes, and other events remind us of the critical need for strong buildings. As Congress discusses the need for resilience and greater energy efficiency in our communities, we are reminded in May that key elements of resilience and energy efficiency are sound building and energy codes.

I want to congratulate the leaders of the ICC, which has sponsored Building Safety Month in May every year for over 30 years. The theme of this year's Building Safety Month, appropriately, is ``Driving Growth Through Innovation, Resilience, and Safety.''

The leadership board of the ICC, including my constituent, President Alex Olszowy, building inspection supervisor for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky, will join ICC's chief executive officer, Dominic Sims, in Washington next week to discuss the critical need to support the adoption and enforcement of current building codes to make sure Americans are safe at home, at work, at school, and at play.

On this occasion, I also want to highlight the good work of the Code Administrators Association of Kentucky, including president Jeff Camp and the other leaders of the Commonwealth's ICC chapter, and to thank the thousands of men and women who work every day to make sure our buildings comply with building and fire codes. Their work, largely unseen and often unnoticed, is critical to keeping the American people safe.

The model building codes adopted by ICC members from all 50 States allow every community to share the advantage of adopting building codes that are adaptable to local conditions but, at the same time, incorporate the very latest research, materials, and building practices.

This is achieved through a public-private partnership, saving local jurisdictions from bearing the large expense of code revision, updating, and coordination. These model codes are produced through the cooperation of thousands of local U.S. code officials working with the building industry to produce codes that represent the consensus on what the minimum safety requirements are and should be for various building types, all without a dime of Federal taxpayer money.

I should mention that the Architect of the Capitol maintains the safety of this building and all House and Senate office buildings by following the requirements in the current International Building Code.

So congratulations and a heartfelt thanks to the hardworking members and leadership of the International Code Council during this Building Safety Month.

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