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Live from the NBFAA Day on Capitol Hill
Members bring fire detection and business legislation proposals to House and Senate
Greg McConnell, Security Dealer & Integrator magazine
Rep. Michael Arcuri addressed NBFAA members at "The NBFAA Day on Capitol Hill". Arcuri introduced a bill called the Long Term Care Life Safety Act which would help fund fire alarm detection system retrofits in existing nursing homes and hospice facilities.
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Earlier this week many members of the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) invested their own time and resources to make the trip to Washington, D.C. for the NBFAA's annual Day on Capitol Hill, which was Wednesday, April 30, to discuss issues important to the security industry. The approximately 30 NBFAA members in attendance split up based on where they lived to have brief meetings throughout the day with senators, representatives, and/or their staff. These meetings were set up by NBFAA lobbyist John Chwat.
The legislative action items that NBFAA members focused on during the day included:
• Retaining Section 705 of H.R. 4137 in Conference Committee, which would provide matching funds to colleges for life safety and fire equipment enabling both detection and suppression of fires.
• Introduce the "Long Term Care Life Safety Act" in the Senate to go along with Representative Michael Arcuri's version of the bill in the House. (This bill is to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human services to make grant promoting retrofit installation of fire alarm detection systems in nursing homes, hospice facilities, and similar facilities.)
• Have the Senate consider health care choices for small businesses. (By pooling small businesses together nationally, business owners would have more affordable health care options.)
• Federal background check for electronic life safety, security, and systems professionals. (This would entail giving the security industry access to the same FBI database used by schools, law enforcement and others to do background checks.)
• Local Government Video Surveillance Protection Act of 2008. (The bill would be aimed at having counties and cities with populations less than 250,000 to have funds set aside to contract with small business local security installation companies to install video surveillance in high-priority areas such as schools, courts, city-owned property relating to water, utilities, and other infrastructure.)
