Executive Orders, Public Laws, and Federal Standards

Executive Orders

• Seismic Safety of Existing Federally Owned or Leased Buildings
  Executive Order 12941 - December 1, 1994
  Adobe Acrobat - 12 KB .pdf File
  
  Section 1.  Adoption of Minimum Standards:  "The Standards of Seismic Safety for Existing Federally Owned or Leased Buildings (Standards), developed, issued, and maintained by the Interagency Committee on Seismic Safety in Construction (ICSSC), are hereby adopted as the minimum level acceptable for use by Federal departments and agencies in assessing the seismic safety of their owned and leased buildings and in mitigating unacceptable seismic risks in those buildings. The Standards shall be applied, at a minimum, to those buildings identified in the Standards as requiring evaluation and, if necessary, mitigation."
  
  
  
• Seismic Safety of Federal and Federally Assisted or Regulated New Building Construction
  Executive Order 12699 - January 5, 1990
  Adobe Acrobat - 25 and 130 KB .pdf Files
  
  Section 1.  Requirements for Earthquake Safety of New Federal Buildings:  "The purposes of these requirements are to reduce risks to the lives of occupants of buildings owned by the Federal Government and to persons who would be affected by the failures of Federal buildings in earthquakes, to improve the capability of essential Federal buildings to function during or after an earthquake, and to reduce earthquake losses of public buildings, all in a cost-effective manner. A building means any structure, fully or partially enclosed, used or intended for sheltering persons or property."
  

Public Laws

• Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977
  Public Law 95-124 and 42 United States Code (U.S.C.) §§ 7701, et seq. - October 7, 1977
  Adobe Acrobat - 28, 106, and 91 KB .pdf Files
  
  § 7702.  Congressional statement of purpose:  "(5) the development, in areas of seismic risk, of improved understanding of, and capability with respect to, earthquake-related issues, including methods of mitigating the risks from earthquakes, planning to prevent such risks, disseminating warnings of earthquakes, organization emergency services, and planning for reconstruction and redevelopment after an earthquake;"
  
  § 7702.  Congressional statement of purpose:  "(6) the development of ways to increase the use of existing scientific and engineering knowledge to mitigate earthquake hazards; and"
  
  Note:  References to mitigation programs are also found in § 7704 (b)(2)(A)(viii);
              § 7704 (b)(2)(A)(ix); § 7704 (b)(4)(A); § 7704 (b)(4)(E); and § 7705e (3).
  
  
  
• National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act
  Public Law 101-614 - November 16, 1990
  Adobe Acrobat - 34 and 64 KB .pdf Files
  
  Section 8.   Seismic Standards:  "(a)(1) The President shall adopt, not later then December 1, 1994, standards for assessing and enhancing the seismic safety of existing buildings constructed for or leased by the Federal Government which were designed and constructed without adequate seismic design and construction standards."
  
  Note:  This was accomplished through Executive Order 12941.
  
  
  
• Earthquake Hazards Reduction Authorization Act of 1999
  House of Representatives (H.R.) 1184 - April 22, 1999
  Adobe Acrobat - 35 and 26 KB .pdf Files
  

Federal Standards

• Standards of Seismic Safety for Existing Federally Owned and Leased Buildings
  Interagency Committee on Seismic Safety in Construction (ICSSC) RP 8 - December 2011
  Adobe Acrobat - 623 KB .pdf File
  
  Section 2.1.  Situations Requiring Evaluation and Mitigation:  "At a minimum, a building shall be evaluated and unacceptable risks mitigated when. . ." [the building is classified as extremely
  high risk].
  
  Note:  ICSSC RP 6 is the revision to the Standards of Seismic Safety for Existing Federally Owned
             or Leased Buildings and Commentary (ICSSC RP 4), which was issued by the ICSSC in
             1994 in response to Public Law 101-614 and Executive Order 12941.