Executive Order 12941 · 1994-12-05

Seismic Safety of Existing Federally Owned or Leased Buildings

Federal Agencies Must Inventory and Mitigate Seismic Risks in Buildings

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Signed by William J. Clinton
Published 1994-12-05

What it does

Federal agencies must inventory owned and leased buildings and estimate costs to mitigate unacceptable seismic risks within four years.

Real-world impact

  • Agencies must inventory and assess earthquake risks for federal buildings.
  • May require retrofits or repairs to reduce unsafe building earthquake risks.
  • Requires agencies to submit cost estimates to FEMA for congressional reporting.

Topics

seismic safetyfederal buildingsemergency managementbuilding retrofitsgovernment reporting

Summary

This order adopts the Interagency Committee's Standards as the minimum for checking and fixing earthquake safety in federally owned or leased buildings. It requires federal departments and agencies that own or lease buildings to inventory those buildings and estimate costs to reduce unacceptable seismic risks.

The order assigns the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to collect cost estimates and report to Congress, requires the standards committee to update rules regularly, and directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide technical assistance.

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