Sprinkler Legislation Passes House and Senate, now on Governor’s Desk
ByLegislation contained in House Bill 377 repeals a government mandate to have automatic sprinkler systems installed in newly constructed homes after Jan. 1, 2011. The requirement would have residents building new homes to spend between $5 thousand and $20 thousand for these automatic sprinkler systems.
This was truly a statewide PROA member organization effort, and PROA and the DIG Board, thank you all!
After coming out of the Senate Labor and Industry Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 6 with language lending a permanent fix to the automatic code adoption process in PA by requiring a 2/3 Review and Advisory Council vote to implement changes to the construction code, H.B. 377 moved into the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday, April 11. All amendments were defeated, and on Tuesday, April 12, the Senate voted in support of the bill, further defeating all negative amendments, 33-17.
On Wednesday, April 13, H.B. 377 was sent back to the House of Representatives for a concurrence vote. After an unsuccessful last minute push by various environmental groups to stop the bill in its tracks, the House voted 129-68 to concur.
While it still needs to be signed by the Governor, thanks go out to PROA and to all the DIG members who contacted their representatives in Harrisburg to repeal the old requirement.
