June President's Message
Dear IAF Members and Industry Friends,
June has always been one of my favorite months, as a child it always signaled an end to a school year, and a beginning of whatever fun the summer had in store. At 54 I am no longer a child, and I have more things to worry about now. As I pen this message there are concerns at hand like tariffs and the high likelihood of de-regulation of our industry coming up again in the 2026 Legislative Session.
On the legislative front, let’s start off with some really good news regarding a very important IAF victory that we have to report. Governor DeSantis has signed into law HB 551, which includes the modifications to the Simplified Permitting law that we have lobbied hard for.
I would like to draw special attention to one of our dedicated volunteers and members of our Legislative Committee, Danny Harrod, who has championed this cause for many months. Danny sums it up best; “This bill closes some loopholes and expands the scope of the original bill. Key provisions of the newly passed IAF Legislation include;
- Adds to the scope of a project the change out of a panel of the same make and model.
- Add the definition Alteration to clarify that adding a device is part of the intended scope &
- Prevents an AHJ from requiring additional plan review other than onsite at the time of inspection.”
We are very pleased to share that the 2025 Legislative Session has finally come to an end and most importantly the ECLB and continuing education for our industry remain intact! Please see our Legislative Updates for a more comprehensive overview of what IAF has been doing for our members.
Switching gears to the national stage, the Liberation Day Tariffs continue to be a hot topic of discussion in many business circles. Although we appear to have reached an agreement with China, undoubtedly the trade partner of most concern to our Industry, there is still a sense of uncertainty in the business world. Will my costs keep going up? How do I communicate with customers? How to Invoice Tariff surcharges? Because we are a trade association, and not consultants, lawyers or accountants, we are limited on offering Tariff related advice to our members. For this reason, we invited our friend Mitch Reitman to share some thoughts on the subject. I always find Mitch’s words insightful and sound, we hope you enjoy the article below.
With all that said, let’s get summer started. I hope that many of you can take some meaningful, quality time to spend with family and loved ones this summer.
Raising the Bar - One Achievement at a Time,
Diego R. del Pino
IAF President