The White House recently issued an Executive Order 13690: "Establishing a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard and a Process for Further Soliciting and Considering Stakeholder Input."  This Executive Order (EO) requires that any new construction or development in, and affecting floodplains funded by the federal government, will be required to meet the level of resilience established in the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS). This includes federal government projects where federal funds are used to build new structures and facilities, or to rebuild those that have been damaged. These projects make sure that buildings built with funds provided by the federal government are constructed to withstand the impacts of flooding, improve the resilience of communities, and protect federal investments.

NAR is concerned that this sweeping new standard could have unintended consequences that could impact communities, homeowners and flood insurance rates for properties located in the floodplain.

There will be numerous opportunities for public comment on this new standard.  FEMA, the federal agency tasked by the EO to coordinate this new federal flood standard, is soliciting public comment on the guidelines by which this standard will be implemented by the federal agencies. NAR will comment on these draft guidelines.  Once the draft guidelines are finalized, each federal agency will develop a draft plan for public comment that would implement the EO and FFRMS for the activities and programs for each respective agency.  NAR will also review and comment on each of these draft agency plans as they are released.

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