By John Boling
Repeat anti-building-code legislation from 2024 made a surprising amount of progress in 2025 until it hit a wall of bipartisan common sense in the state senate, where it stalled. The state’s legislative session ended before the bill’s proponents could mollify the concerns of the detractors, and the bill died.
Introduced back on January 16, 2025, the legislation (HB 939) originally focused on residential energy-code construction requirements; however, during debate on the House floor, the bill was amended to also include commercial and industrial construction, greatly expanding its impact. IIBEC determined that building enclosure consultants’ interests were impacted and that action was necessary.
The goal of HB 939 was ostensibly to keep homes “affordable” by banning local officials from adopting codes or provisions deemed “green building designs or practices.”
However, as IIBEC’s letter, which was sent to every member of the Missouri State Senate, states, “The lack of definitions for ‘green building designs or construction practices’ and ‘affordability’ will lead to confusion, delay, and likely, potential lawsuits as communities grapple with the subjective nature and undefined characteristics that this bill would promulgate.”
IIBEC Executive Vice President and CEO Brian Pallasch thanked Cale Prokopf, REWO, RRO, of IIBEC Central States Branch, for signing the letter.
“Legislators must know there are local supporters on IIBEC letters, precisely because they are voters, too,” Pallasch said. “This poorly written bill would have confused local leaders trying to adopt smart construction practices and codes for their community, leading to unnecessary and expensive lawsuits or a code bereft of new provisions designed to benefit occupants and enhance their living environment.
“Wherever consultants’ interests are impacted, you will find IIBEC pushing back,” he concluded.
