Trump Administration to Cut Common-Sense Flood Rule that Saves Homes, Lives and Taxpayer Dollars
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The Trump administration is set to repeal the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) rule establishing requirements on implementing the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) which went into force May of 2024. Among other things, the rule ensured HUD’s federally funded projects would be built to withstand current and future flood risk. The repeal of HUD’s FFRMS rule will mean that new buildings, facilities and homes, and substantially damaged improvements to these assets will be at an increased risk of flooding from hurricanes, sea level rise and increasingly severe weather that is super-charged by climate change. The impact will be felt disproportionately, harming low-income residents, people of color, the elderly, and those with disabilities.
In President Trump’s second term it’s déjà vu all over again—well, sort of. In 2017, President Trump repealed President Obama’s executive order 13690 that updated the flood standard for the first time since it was established by President Carter in 1977, effectively ending the implementation of the flood standard. However, in President Trump’s second term, he issued EO 14148 to abolish all “harmful” orders under the Biden administration. Included in the recission was President Biden’s EO 14030 on Climate-Related Financial Risk which made it the policy of the US to recognize the risk of climate change impacts to economic growth by disclosing climate change-related financial risk and the FFRMS. One glitch in Trump’s plan is that he didn’t consider (or even know) that each federal agency needed a new rule—not an easy task, since it requires painstaking staff work and public comment—to replace the flood standard rules intended to save lives, homes and money.
The FFRMS was implemented across government agencies. In addition to this impending repeal from HUD, last year FEMA also signaled that it would no longer implement its FFRMS rule (although it has yet to actually roll it back legally). Combined, the rollback of FFRMS in these two agencies means that communities will be less prepared for flooding, even where taxpayers are investing in new or rebuilt infrastructure.
The methodology and the science behind the flood standard have advanced significantly, and the need for the flood standard has grown as fossil-fueled climate change contributes to more extreme weather disasters.
The numerous benefits associated with federal agencies implementing and enforcing flood standard rules include reducing the loss of life and property damage, ensuring wiser investment in taxpayer dollars, and sustaining the beneficial functions of floodplains.
President Trump’s short-sighted determination to eliminate HUD’s flood standard will set the agency and its housing flood standards back years and allow new affordable housing to be built in areas prone to flood risks and without adequate flood-risk mitigation measures.
The repeal of the HUD rule will:
Keep residents of HUD-financed housing at risk, disproportionately impacting Black and Hispanic people, the elderly, people with disabilities and low incomes.
- The first required method, if the data is available, is the Climate-Informed Science Approach (CISA) to understand the flood risk over the life of the project. The user would then select a climate change scenario and tolerance of risk based on the criticality of the project.
- The second method is the 0.2% annual-chance flood approach (“500-year” flood) for non-critical actions.
- The third method is the Freeboard Value Approach (FVA) for non-critical actions if the climate change data is not available and the 0.2% annual-chance floodplain elevation is not defined. This would mean simply adding an additional three feet to the base flood elevation.
The HUD rule is really about resilience. The impact of repealing this rule will be felt by those who can least afford to withstand the costs. But this short-sighted action by the Trump administration shouldn’t limit the flood resilience goals of state and local governments who understand the flood risk to their communities. State and local governments must continue to adopt and implement the best and highest protective floodplain management standards, such as what is defined in HUD’s FFRMS.
The Trump administration should follow a wiser course: embrace the flood resilience standard across the federal government and invest in climate resilience programs to better protect residents rather than further worsening the deeply inequitable affordable housing crisis in our nation. The time is long overdue to move away from a history of discriminatory housing practices that have forced underserved communities into substandard housing in flood risk zones and ensure safe and sustainable housing for people with the fewest resources to prepare for a changing climate.
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