The National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) and its members traveled to Washington for the 2008 NBFAA Day on Capitol Hill,  on April 30.

In this second annual event, more than 50 NBFAA officers, board members and regular members made the journey to promote the legislation the NBFAA is supporting.

“We had a very active session and our members met with different congressmen personally,” said NBFAA’s lobbyist and director of government relations John Chwat. “It was a very, very concentrated day, but it was also a very productive day. It was very important to have the members explain who the industry is to congressmen, senators, and staff and emphasize issues important to the security industry.

“By working together as an association through a collective voice on important industry issues at the national level, by coordinating our efforts and by speaking out on the issues, we can make a difference,” Chwat said.

In addition to congressional visits, attendees also enjoyed a night tour of the city monuments and attended a Honeywell-sponsored reception held at Honeywell’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.), sponsor of H.R. 2882, the Long-Term Care Life Safety Act, was the featured guest speaker at the NBFAA luncheon on April 30. H.R. 2882 is designed to establish a grant program within the Department of Health and Human Services to promote professional retrofit installation of fire alarm detection systems and other fire prevention technologies in assisted living facilities, nursing homes and hospice facilities.

“This bill promotes the installation of fire alarm detection systems in long-term health care facilities, and we are very pleased to see that Congressman Arcuri has worked with the NBFAA to ensure that fire safety in these facilities involves both detection and suppression,” said George Gunning, NBFAA president.
The NBFAA purports that the life safety community should not rely on any one single fire prevention technology to protect lives and property, but instead work together to ensure a balanced fire protection system.

For more information about this bill and what you can do to support it, contact NBFAA’s lobbyist and director of government relations John Chwat, at Chwat & Company Inc., 625 Slaters Lane, Suite 103, Alexandria, VA 22314. He may also be reached by phone at 703-684-7703 or by e-mail at Gov.Info@alarm.org.