The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule on July 10, 2026, to rescind its 2024 floodplain management and wetlands protection regulations, citing an executive order that removed the legal foundation for those rules.
According to the Federal Register, Executive Order 14148, titled "Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions," revoked a prior executive order that had underpinned HUD's final rule published on April 23, 2024. The new proposal would largely return HUD's regulations to the form they held before that date.
The Federal Register filing states that the proposal is not a complete rollback. Several elements from the 2024 rule would be kept, including flexibilities tied to floodways, provisions covering categorical exclusions, and the decisionmaking process framework. Part 55 applicability exemptions established in the 2024 rule would also be preserved. The proposal additionally includes minor revisions aimed at improving regulatory clarity.