Longtime CEO R. Walden Chace resigned under pressure in 2010 due to excessive spending and collaborations with Reed Exhibitions.

SIA lobbied for the enactment of legislation creating the GSA Schedule 84 Cooperative Purchasing Program.

The Local Preparedness Acquisition Act (Public Law 110-248), signed June 26, 2008, authorizes state and local governments to purchase from GSA alarm and signal systems, facility management systems, firefighting and rescue equipment, law enforcement and security equipment, marine craft and related equipment, special purpose clothing and related services, according to GSA.

[5] SIA also lobbied for legislation (Public Law 111-360), signed by President Barack Obama in January 2011, that exempts external power supplies for security and life safety products from federal energy efficiency standards that apply to devices in no-load model.

[6] In July 2024, SIA signed a letter to members of both the House Committee on Armed Services and the Senate Committee on Armed Services opposing Section 828 of S. 4628, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, entitled "Requirement for Contractors to Provide Reasonable Access to Repair Materials," which would require contractors doing business with the US military to agree "to provide the Department of Defense fair and reasonable access to all the repair materials, including parts, tools, and information, used by the manufacturer or provider or their authorized partners to diagnose, maintain, or repair the good or service.

In 2023, researchers disclosed a suite of vulnerabilities that allow a man-in-the-middle attack to largely break OSDP even with its "Secure Channel" extension.