Texas Governor Greg Abbott officially signed H.B. 2439 into law on June 14, 2019. This legislation, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate, prohibits local governments in Texas from mandating the use of only specific products, and it will allow the use of products and materials permitted in current national building codes. The law now goes into effect on September 1, 2019.

For the better part of a decade, EIMA had been working on a case-by-case basis on EIFS prohibitions and restrictions in Texas as they came to the association’s attention. On multiple occasions, EIMA offered to its local allies educational services, tools and advice on how to combat ordinances, and gathered information on efforts by other competing interest which favored a limiting the number of building materials and products.

In early 2019, after a great deal of research and study on the situation in Texas, EIMA launched the “Take Back Texas” initiative to overturn the 220 plus restrictions against the usage of EIFS. One of the steps of the initiative was to partner with other interested parties, which is where the big break occurred.

Shortly after the initiative launched during the 2019 EIMA Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, EIMA became an active participant in a coalition seeking to overturn all of these prohibitive codes and ordinances in a sweeping manner. The effort included the Texas Association of Builders, Safe Building Materials Association of Texas, and many other leaders in the building industry. The coalition’s efforts led to the introduction of H.B. 2439 by Rep. Phelan in the Texas House of Representatives, which was filed on February 25, 2019.

“This is one of the single biggest victories our industry has seen in years,” said EIMA President Peter Daechsel, who is a Manager of BASF Wall Systems. “Thanks to a large effort from several in the construction and building industry, the 220 plus restrictions against our industry are no more.” The bi-partisan legislation was approved by an overwhelming vote of 124-21-2 in the Texas House of Representatives, and an equally significant margin of 24-5 in the Texas Senate. Texas represented one of the many areas that EIMA has been spending resources to overturn restrictive ordinances against the EIFS industry.