Washington, D.C. – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today blasted the General Services Administration’s (GSA) support for efforts to repeal stronger safety requirements for new skyscrapers, standards that were recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) following the September 11 terrorist attacks. In a letter today to Acting GSA Administrator Jim Williams, Senator Clinton strongly urged them to publicly reverse their position, stating that these requirements that were born out of lessons learned from September 11, and arguing that they were created to help prevent the loss of life should a accident or catastrophe occur in the future. Clinton vowed to continue to work to ensure that any new GSA leases or construction projects that pass through the committee for approval apply the NIST recommended safety provisions.
“I am extremely disappointed to hear that the GSA is working to stop improvements to building safety codes for new skyscrapers that resulted from an independent evaluation of what happened on September 11. We need to learn from that tragedy, and the GSA should be supporting enhancements to the safety codes for new skyscrapers, not working with industry to undermine them. I strongly urge the GSA to publicly reverse their position, and I will continue to push to ensure that we are doing all we can to improve skyscraper safety standards nationwide.”
Following September 11, the NIST conducted a thorough and independent assessment of what can and should be done to improve the safety of skyscrapers based upon lessons learned from the September 11 terrorist attacks. These recommendations were translated into changes to the building codes for skyscrapers by a committee of the International Code Council (ICC). The full ICC will vote next week on whether to adopt the new code, and it was reported recently that GSA had publicly opposed the stronger safety standards, arguing they would be too expensive to meet.
