View Rule

Consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order on Climate Related Financial Risk (E.O. 14030), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) proposes to amend its regulations at 44 CFR part 9, "Floodplain Management and Protection of Wetlands," to incorporate amendments to Executive Order 11988 and the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS).  The FFRMS is a flexible framework allowing agencies to choose among three approaches to define the floodplain and corresponding flood elevation requirements for federally funded projects. 44 CFR part 9 describes FEMA’s process under Executive Order 11988 for determining whether the proposed location for an action falls within a floodplain and how to complete the action in the floodplain, in light of the risk of flooding.  The proposed rule would change how FEMA defines a floodplain with respect to certain actions. Additionally, under the proposed rule, FEMA would use natural systems, ecosystem process, and nature-based approaches, where practicable, when developing alternatives to locating the proposed action in the floodplain.