Principal Francesca Oliveira took to Capitol Hill last week with a group of over 400 architects for the 2023 AIA Leadership Summit. As part of the official AIA Lobby Day, the group visited the offices of congress members and advocated for two bipartisan congressional bills: the Democracy in Design Act and the Resilient AMERICA Act.

The Democracy in Design Act would ensure that communities across the country maintain a voice in the design of federal buildings consistent with their preferences, topographies, and design traditions. 

The Resilient AMERICA Act would prepare communities for natural disasters by increasing funding for FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Programs that fund pre-disaster mitigation grants, and resilient building code adoption and implementation.