April 29, 2024 – The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a self-funded nonprofit that develops over 300 fire, life and electrical safety standards, praised the bipartisan passage of the Pro Codes Act (H.R.1631) by the House Judiciary Committee. The bill was introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC).
NFPA President and CEO Jim Pauley offered the following statement:
“We’re enormously grateful to Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Nadler, Chairman Issa, Rep. Ross and the many co-sponsors whose hard work and commitment led to the passage of this bill through the House Judiciary Committee. We were also gratified to see the committee’s overwhelming bipartisan support for the Pro Codes Act, which will help protect lives, power economic growth and save taxpayer dollars.
“Nonprofits like NFPA develop rigorous standards that are critical to the safety and health of all Americans. The Pro Codes Act supports free public access when governmental bodies choose to incorporate by reference privately developed standards. It also protects the ability of groups like ours to continue our important work for years to come.”
The Pro Codes Act has also been introduced in the U.S. Senate (S.835) by Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
ISSUE SUMMARY
Rigorous voluntary consensus-based standards, developed by nonprofit standards development organizations (SDOs) like NFPA, are critical to the safety of Americans and people around the world. This standards development system has worked effectively and efficiently for over 125 years.
Unfortunately, the standards development system is under attack. Sometimes, federal, state or local statutes or regulations incorporate by reference privately developed standards like the ones that NFPA creates. Some special interests argue that this process, which benefits the public, should forfeit the copyright and allow others to profit off of SDOs’ work.
Extinguishing the copyright for a standard incorporated by reference threatens to make it impossible for SDOs to sell copies of their standards to the professionals who use them. The net result would be the dismantling of the private standards development system. There are no alternatives anywhere as effective or efficient.
The Pro Codes Act reinforces existing law by making it clear that a standard does not lose its copyright protection by virtue of having been used by government in this way, provided that the standard is available for free viewing on a publicly accessible website. This legislation ensures transparency for the public, while also protecting the ability of groups like NFPA to continue their important work.
