| WASHINGTON, DC -- (PRNewswire) Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and
Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) last week introduced the “Code and Safety for the
Americas” (CASA) Act to improve building practices in Latin America. The CASA Act,
cosponsored in the Senate by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Al.),
would authorize $3 million over two years from general foreign aid funds to translate into
Spanish the United States building codes developed by the International Code Council (ICC).
The bill also calls for pilot training programs for architects and engineers in Ecuador and El
Salvador, with the intent of expanding this program through private partnerships to other
countries.
The CASA Act is an assistance program to improve life safety and the quality of construction
in Latin American countries. It would mitigate the risk of natural disasters such as the two
recent 7.6 magnitude earthquakes in El Salvador that killed almost 2,000 people.
“This legislation will save lives, lessen the damage caused by future disasters, and illustrate
our good will toward our Latin American allies while proving to be cost-effective for the United
States through decreased aid following future disasters,” said Senator Dodd in his statement
introducing the CASA Act. In a letter to his colleagues Senator Dodd recognized the
importance of building codes and certified construction products and systems. “Most
countries in Latin America lack uniform, tested building codes...Over the past few years, the
International Code Council (ICC) has unified the various regional American building codes
into one comprehensive text that serves as the code of record for the United States.''
“The devastation left behind in such countries (as El Salvador and Ecuador) is huge in
comparison to our experience in Seattle, Washington, for example,'' wrote Representative
DeLauro in a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations. “The
earthquake that hit Seattle earlier this year was 6.8 in magnitude but it caused only minimal
structural damage. There was no loss of life, and no homes or businesses were destroyed.
The difference...is...proper implementation and enforcement of good building codes.''
The CASA Act came at the request of the building professionals and organizations of El
Salvador and Ecuador. It will provide a sustainable, state-of-the-art, “train the trainers”
program based on the ICC family of international, comprehensive and coordinated building
and construction codes. Architects, contractors, university faculty and public officials both in
the United States and in Latin America support the CASA Act.
The ICC was founded in 1994 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing a single set of comprehensive and coordinated
national model construction codes. The founders of the ICC are Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc.
(BOCA), International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), and Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. (SBCCI).
Since the early part of the last century, these nonprofit organizations have developed the three sets of model codes used
throughout the United States.
This eUpdate posting by: Steve Joyce
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