The Portland Cement Association (PCA) and others in the concrete industry are urging the enactment of H.R. 2241, the Disaster Savings and Resilient Construction Act of 2013, providing $25,000 and $3,000 tax credits, respectively, to business or home owners who rebuild in declared federal disaster areas.
These efforts align with President Obama’s recently unveiled Climate Action Plan. It calls for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to convene a panel on disaster-resilience standards to develop a comprehensive, community-based resilience framework and provide guidelines for consistently safe buildings and infrastructure-products that can inform the development of private-sector standards and codes.
“By enacting higher building standards, cities and towns can successfully weather any challenge and keep friends and family safe,” said Greg Scott, PCA president and CEO. “The nation spends billions of dollars each year for relief packages, and in this challenging economic climate, communities cannot afford to completely rebuild each time a disaster strikes. By utilizing resilient construction techniques, the built environment is protected from the increasing number and severity of natural or man-made disasters.”
In addition to the Disaster Savings Act, PCA is supporting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-hosted Concrete Sustainability Hub to help designers and builders quantify the physical resilience of residential structures as a portion of the overall systems concept of resilience. Comparing this performance against costs will facilitate communication of the cost and performance trade-offs of alternative designs.
The public can write their Member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 2241, the Disaster Savings and Resilient Construction Act of 2013 by visiting here.
