By Todd Sims, Director, Government Relations

This June, NEMA participated in national High Performance Building Week on Capitol Hill. Fellow associations, advocates, manufacturers, and other stakeholders throughout the supply and value chains joined NEMA to promote the benefits of high-performance buildings and advocate for policies to advance the access to these buildings to all Americans.  

Throughout the week, the coalition met with the following members of congress:

Senators Murkowski (R-AK), Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA), Cortez Mastro (D-NV), Merkley (D-OR), King (I-ME), Britt (R-AL), and Hyde-Smith (R-MS).

From the House, the coalition met with Representatives Guest (R-MS-03), Kuster (D-NH2), Reschenthaler (R-PA-14), Crenshaw (R-TX-02), Castor (D-FL-14), Griffith (R-VA-09), Tonko (D-NY-20), Matsui (D-CA-07), DeGette (D-CO-01), and Cárdenas (D-CA-29).

NEMA included several industry-wide priorities during these meetings, including:

• Department of Energy Solid State Lighting Program. Included in the High Performance Building Coalition’s 2023 appropriation’s priorities is a request for report language for the DOE SSL Program to receive $25 million in FY’24
• Electrical Safety. NEMA highlighted the importance of electrical safety as homes and commercial buildings are continually becoming smarter and more electrified.
• Protecting Codes and Standards. Many members of the HPBC, including NEMA, are Standards Development Organizations (SDO’s). Unfortunately, the codes and standards development processes is under attack by threatening the intellectual property and copyrights of SDO’s. NEMA and the HPBC urged members to pass the Pro Codes Act of 2023.
• Building-Grid Nexus. An electrified future, including increasingly smart and electrified buildings, will require an advanced and resilient grid. NEMA highlighted the importance of interoperability between buildings and grid-edge technologies. We also successfully encouraged members to join the Grid Innovation Caucus and to coordinate efforts with the High Performance Building Caucus.

High Performance Building Week ended on high notes as the General Services Administration announced nearly $1 billion in funding for Federal Buildings. The funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to upgrade federal buildings across the country will help with progress towards the Biden administration’s goal of net-zero emissions from federal buildings by 2045.

Officials from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers, WAP Consulting, Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors—National Association held a discussion on the importance of implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). With billions of dollars being dedicated to advancing high-performance buildings in both bills through measures such as code adoption, building retrofits, equipment rebate programs and more, successful implementation is crucial. The panel highlighted specific areas including the need for clear and flexible guidance, workforce availability issues, domestic content and supply chain challenges, and perspectives from state and local implementing agencies.