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15 U.S. Code § 2227. Fire safety systems in federally assisted buildings
(a) DefinitionsFor purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1)
The term “affordable cost” means the cost to a Federal agency of leasing office space in a building that is protected by an automatic sprinkler system or equivalent level of safety, which cost is no more than 10 percent greater than the cost of leasing available comparable office space in a building that is not so protected.
(2) The term “automatic sprinkler system” means an electronically supervised, integrated system of piping to which sprinklers are attached in a systematic pattern, and which, when activated by heat from a fire—
(A)
will protect human lives by discharging water over the fire area, in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association Standard 13, 13D, or 13R, whichever is appropriate for the type of building and occupancy being protected, or any successor standard thereto; and
(B)
includes an alarm signaling system with appropriate warning signals (to the extent such alarm systems and warning signals are required by Federal, State, or local laws or regulations) installed in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association Standard 72, or any successor standard thereto.
(3)
The term “equivalent level of safety” means an alternative design or system (which may include automatic sprinkler systems), based upon fire protection engineering analysis, which achieves a level of safety equal to or greater than that provided by automatic sprinkler systems.
(4)
The term “Federal employee office building” means any office building in the United States, whether owned or leased by the Federal Government, that is regularly occupied by more than 25 full-time Federal employees in the course of their employment.
(5) The term “housing assistance”—
(A)
means assistance provided by the Federal Government to be used in connection with the provision of housing,[1] that is provided in the form of a grant, contract, loan, loan guarantee, cooperative agreement, interest subsidy, insurance, or direct appropriation; and
(B)
does not include assistance provided by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the single family mortgage insurance programs under the National Housing Act [12 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.] or the homeownership assistance program under section 235 of such Act [12 U.S.C. 1715z]; the National Homeownership Trust; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation under the affordable housing program under section 1831q of title 12; or the Resolution Trust Corporation under the affordable housing program under section 1441a(c) [2] of title 12.
(6)
The term “hazardous areas” means those areas in a building referred to as hazardous areas in National Fire Protection Association Standard 101, known as the Life Safety Code, or any successor standard thereto.
(7) The term “multifamily property” means—
(A)
in the case of housing for Federal employees or their dependents, a residential building consisting of more than 2 residential units that are under one roof; and
(B)
in any other case, a residential building consisting of more than 4 residential units that are under one roof.
(8)
The term “prefire plan” means specific plans for fire fighting activities at a property or location.
(9)
The term “rebuilding” means the repairing or reconstructing of portions of a multifamily property where the cost of the alterations is 70 percent or more of the replacement cost of the completed multifamily property, not including the value of the land on which the multifamily property is located.