The NFSA is monitoring legislation and regulations at the federal, state, and local level. Our Field Operations and Government Relations personnel are working closely with our Codes, Standards, and Public Fire Protection team to review and investigate the impact of legislation on the fire sprinkler industry. We have new tools that include FiscalNote® that helps us monitor legislation being introduced at all levels of government. Our lteam is using VoterVoice, a part of FiscalNote, to let our voices be heard at the right level and the right time. We have already observed success in New Jersey and Arizona with our tools.

The following is a message from FiscalNote to our team.

Right now, policymakers around the world are taking action. Here is just a snippet of the extraordinary actions being taken that we are seeing in our platforms in relation to COVID-19:

• At least 203 US federal and state bills and regulations introduced relating to COVID-19 including $370 million in state level appropriations (there were 23 new bills introduced among the states just in the last 24 hours).
• Passage of the $8.3 billion Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act and the start of several Congressional stimulus and tax packages including 124 Dear Colleague Letters, 60+ CRS and GAO reports, and dozens of federal government agency actions.
• More than 290 mentions in local cities’ and counties’ public hearings across the United States.
• Countries in our international data sets have introduced more than 180 public policy documents, including more than a dozen new initiatives from the European Commission.
• Several substantial changes in campaigns and election rules as the country responds to the pandemic in a Presidential election year.

We are working diligently on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to ensure that any stimulus package includes the fire sprinkler industry, and that anything to do with taxes cleans up the technical correction left out of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that would include Quality Improvement Properties (QIP) so that fire sprinklers can receive accelerated depreciation over 10 years. Our partners at the International Association of Fire Chiefs had a great message titled, Fighting Fire with Tax Policy and this will help with what has happened and what is left to do.

Congress has already appropriated $1 billion dollars for the U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Loan Program. This is unprecedented in American history. We know that other stimulus packages are in the works and our team in D.C. is working on your behalf. There have been recent changes to the Family Medical Leave Act and more are expected. We have also requested that as bailouts to the airline industry, sports teams, hotels, etc. occur, that non- and not-for-profit associations be included, as we have cancelled training and conferences across the country and U.S. Territories.

We will be reaching out to members when we need our voice heard and you will be using our new tools to communicate to your elected officials.

To see all NFSA Advocacy, Please Click Here