Washington, D.C. – April 17, 2003. The nation’s construction industry plays a vital role in assuring both public safety and the economic productivity of our country. Where the regulatory system that oversees construction is inefficient or ineffective, construction and regulatory costs increase, poor quality or poor performing buildings are produced, and lives and livelihoods of citizens and businesses are negatively impacted.

To address this problem, the work groups of the National Alliance on Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age have set meeting dates for the spring and early summer to develop additional tools for state and local governments to use to enhance homeland security and reduce the regulatory cost of construction.

Work products under development by the Alliance this spring include: a prototype of a secure database of as-built designs and evacuation plans for first responders; model enabling legislation for state and local governments to streamline their building regulatory processes; a website of information on software and hardware currently available to government to administer their code enforcement programs; model procurement standards for jurisdictions to acquire such hardware and software; and the development of tools to measure costs/benefits to affordable housing from the implementation of regulatory streamlining practices.

The Alliance, a public-private partnership formed in 2001 by over 36 national organizations and governmental agencies, has four work groups. Those work groups and their upcoming spring meeting dates and locations are as follows:

1. A ten-member Steering Committee oversees and guides the Alliance’s work products: Washington, D.C. – May 28, 2003 & June 25, 2003
2. A Technology Task Force works with the information technology community to assemble, develop, and demonstrate a set of tools and standards that jurisdictions and the construction community can use to increase the effective use of interoperable hardware and software in their building regulatory processes: Washington, D.C. – May 14, 2003, June 5, 2003 & June 27, 2003
3. A Planning and Coordinating Task Force leads the dissemination to states, localities, and industry the set of tools developed by the Alliance and successful model streamlining processes that increase the effective use of information technology in the nation’s building regulatory processes: Milpitas, California – May 2, 2003; & Washington, D.C. – June 26, 2003
4. An Affordable Housing Task Force facilitates the rapid dissemination to home builders and state and local building regulators of Alliance tools and model streamlining processes that enhance public safety and reduce the regulatory cost of residential construction: Washington, D.C. – April 21, 2003 & May 27, 2003

A private-public partnership, the National Alliance includes among its members: the National Governors Association, National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards, U. S. Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties, National Association of State Chief Information Officers, National Institute of Standards and Technology, American Institute of Architects, Building Owners and Managers Association International, National Association of Home Builders, National Institute of Building Sciences, and 25 other governmental agencies and construction industry associations.

Funding for the Alliance’s work groups comes from in-kind services of Alliance members and grants from the Construction and Buildings Subcommittee of the White House Science and Technology Council, which includes funding from the U. S. Department of Commerce, U. S. Department of Energy, and the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Secretariat services to the Alliance are provided by the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards.