10/28/99 Committee on the Judiciary

Prepared Testimony of

Paul E. Myers, C.B.O.

Assistant Director

Department of Buildings & Inspections

City of Cincinnati

before the

Subcommittee on the Constitution

Committee on the Judiciary

U.S. House of Representatives

H.R. 2437

Justice in Fair Housing Enforcement Act of 1999

October 28, 1999

on behalf of the

International Code Council, Inc.

5203 Leesburg Pike, Suite 708

Falls Church, VA 22041

(703) 931-4533

My name is Paul E. Myers, and I am here today on behalf of the International Code Council, Inc., known as the ICC, to take the opportunity that the Justice in Fair Housing Enforcement Act has presented to speak out on the role of model building codes in implementing the objectives of federal civil rights laws, more specifically, the Fair Housing Act. I am a member of the Board of Directors of the International Code Council, and have more than 25 years of experience in local government code enforcement. I am currently serving as the President of Building Officials and Code Administrators International, Inc., or BOCA, one of the three founding organizational members of ICC. The point I want to make here today is that the private sector, in developing model building regulations, and the state and local jurisdictions that adopt and enforce such regulations, are key partners in implementing the building accessibility provisions of the Fair Housing Act. We support the notion that state or local building code compliance, when such codes are based on one of the model codes, should be one option in which Fair Housing compliance can be assured.

1. The nation's model code organizations have responded to the public need for a single family of model codes that can be adopted consistently throughout the entire United States.

Construction in the United States is a sophisticated process, governed by interrelated codes and standards that regulate building, plumbing, mechanical (heating, cooling, ventilation), energy, fire, accessibility, and other specialized aspects of construction. Codes writing is a dynamic process, involving constant interaction between the public and private sectors of the construction industry and consumers. Federal, state, and local governments, and individuals involved in codes writing and revision, represent the views of labor, management, manufacturers, design professionals, building owners, and trade associations. The regulation of building construction is largely accomplished through a document known as a "building code."

In 1994, the International Code Council was established as a nonprofit organization with the dedicated purpose of developing a single set of comprehensive and coordinated model construction codes for the U.S. and beyond. The three founding members of ICC -- Building Officials and Code Administrators International, International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO), and Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI) -- are the organizations that, for the past 70-plus years, have developed and maintained regional codes used throughout the United States today. The nation's three model code organizations combined their more than 150 years of experience in writing comprehensive model building regulations in response to changing public needs.

While the regional code concept has served the country's needs well over the years, a single set of codes is in the best interest of the building community and the public at-large. The International Code Council, in essence, was formed in response to a need expressed by the building industry, manufacturers, architects, engineers, building operators and other key stakeholders, including the federal government and organizations such as the National Association of Home Builders. The goal of the ICC is to bring together the three model code organizations and others to work toward a common public interest of streamlining the building regulatory system. The International Code Council also promotes streamlining of the regulatory process through a single family of coordinated codes to bring consistency and compatibility to multiple layers of requirements that exist at the international, Federal, state, and local levels, such as accessibility requirements for multifamily dwellings.

2. In response to sweeping federal regulations for building design and construction for accessibility, the private sector has incorporated model language into the single family of codes which are intended to mirror the Act's minimum accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility for persons with disabilities is an integral part of public health, safety, and welfare, which are the primary purposes of model building regulations. The model code organizations have acted to make the housing accessible in concert with the Federal efforts by incorporating provisions that meet or exceed the minimum Fair Housing accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility provisions of model building codes had been in existence and available for adoption by state or local jurisdictions since the early 1960s.

I am here today to pledge the ICC's commitment to continue developing and helping jurisdictions throughout the entire United States adopt and enforce model building code provisions that provide an equivalent or greater level of accessibility as that required by the Fair Housing Act.

3. The federal government should harness the power of the estimated 40,000-plus state or local jurisdictions that adopt and enforce model codes in proactively implementing the building accessibility provisions of the Act.

Even though it is only the federal government that is empowered to enforce the Fair Housing Act, the mechanism of building code adoption and enforcement at the state and local level should not be discounted in implementing the provisions of the Act. The inherent benefit of and difference between state and local code enforcement and enforcement of federal disability rights laws is the proactive or "before-the-fact" nature of building code enforcement that begins as ideas are put to paper, as opposed to the "after-the-fact" enforcement of federal law which often begins after brick is set to mortar.

Enforcement of the Fair Housing Act building construction provisions is largely complaint-based and often occurs after construction has begun or been completed, whereas the enforcement process of accessibility provisions in state or local codes is automatically triggered with the application for a building permit. Opportunities for identifying and correcting deficiencies during the entire design and construction process exist under the code enforcement process. Although not directly related, this supplements the enforcement methods currently available under the Fair Housing Act.

The International Codes provide an opportunity for an estimated 40,000 state and local jurisdictions to adopt and enforce voluntarily a consistent set of accessibility provisions written in mandatory code language that are at least equivalent to the Fair Housing Act requirements. In fact, many states and local jurisdictions are now better informed on accessibility issues and are seeking to ensure that their building codes contain accessibility provisions that meet or exceed the federal guidelines. We are steps away from being able to take full advantage of this opportunity, thanks to the persistence of NAHB and Secretary Cuomo.

4. ICC has continued to work with HUD and other stakeholders to ensure that model code provisions for accessibility to multifamily dwellings are equivalent to the Act's minimum requirements.

In May 1997, the Council of American Building Officials, now the International Code Council requested on behalf of BOCA, ICBO and SBCCI that HUD review the model codes to determine whether they meet or exceed the level of accessibility required by the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines. The scope of the review included model codes developed by each organization as well as the Draft International Building Code. The approved text of the 2000 International Building Code was submitted to HUD in August 1999.

HUD has completed the review of these model code documents and released a draft report of its findings for public review and comment this Tuesday, October 26, 1999. The model code review project is scheduled to be completed by December 31, 1999.

The ICC is committed to achieving the goal of having in the International Building Code accessibility provisions that meet or exceed the HUD Guidelines. We believe that the 2000 edition of the IBC has reached that goal, but in the event that there are any areas of our code that are determined by HUD to not provide at least the level of accessibility required by the guidelines, we are ready to propose the necessary revisions to the code to accomplish the our mutual objective.

Adoption and enforcement of model codes that are deemed equivalent to the Act's minimum guidelines will benefit all and lead to increased accessible housing stock without reducing HUD's authority under the Act and without eliminating any of the remedies available to people with disabilities under civil rights laws.

HUD's review of the model codes serves a number of purposes and will ultimately result in increased availability of the accessible housing stock. This review will prove mutually beneficial to HUD, the model code groups, state and local jurisdictions, architects, builders, developers and, more importantly, persons with disabilities.

The document resulting from this review will be disseminated to state and local jurisdictions that are currently using model codes or will be adopting them in the future. These jurisdictions can then adopt and enforce these codes with the knowledge that the code provisions are at least equivalent to the Fair Housing accessibility provisions.

Jurisdictions that adopt these codes will then be enforcing provisions that are at least equivalent to the Fair Housing requirements through their routine code enforcement activities. HUD will essentially be engaging the assistance of tens of thousands of code officials in state and local jurisdictions across the country with the ability to determine that buildings have achieved compliance with provisions that are at least equivalent to the Fair Housing provisions.

State and local building code enforcement will increase the accessible housing stock far more effectively and proactively than the enforcement mechanism available under the Fair Housing Act without reducing HUD's authority to pursue enforcement under the law. Additionally, confusion and unpredictability for the industry will be substantially reduced as architects, builders and developers will encounter requirements written in traditional code language and can operate within the code enforcement system with which they are familiar. Most importantly, the protection enjoyed by people with disabilities under the Fair Housing Act will not be diminished. In fact, it is our belief that what will be diminished is the need to pursue those remedies and the need for HUD and the U.S. Department of Justice to expend resources responding to complaints of noncompliance.

Use of model codes developed in the private sector achieves the objective of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act and is consistent with OMB Circular A-119.

Eventually, the ICC would like to see the Fair Housing regulations revised to reference the codes developed by the private sector, consistent with the objectives of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, PL 104-113 and OMB Circular A-119. The use of codes and standards developed by the International Code Council to implement Fair Housing is consistent with the Circular and is intended to achieve the following goals:

a. Eliminate the cost to the Government of developing its own standards and decrease the cost of goods procured and the burden of complying with agency regulation;

b. Provide incentives and opportunities to establish standards that serve national needs;

c. Encourage long-term growth for U.S. enterprises and promote efficiency and economic competition through harmonization of standards;

d. Further the policy of reliance upon the private sector to supply Government needs for goods and services.

In closing, ICC encourages the reliance upon the private-sector model codes and the existing code enforcement mechanism of state and local governments in the United States to ensure the success of the Fair Housing Act. This serves and benefits the federal government and all stakeholders, including home builders and advocates alike.