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On October 2, 2023, consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order on Climate Related Financial Risk (E.O. 14030), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) proposed 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 rule would change how FEMA defines a floodplain with respect to certain actions. Additionally, under the 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. FEMA has engaged the public extensively on these matters.

On February 5, 2015, FEMA acting on behalf of the Mitigation Framework Leadership Group, published a Federal Register notice seeking comments on a draft of the Revised Guidelines for Implementing Executive Order 11988, Floodplain Management. The 60-day comment period was extended an additional 30 days. During the public comment period for the Revised Guidelines, FEMA sent advisories to representatives from Governors’ offices nationwide inviting comments on the draft Revised Guidelines. Over 25 meetings were held across the country with State, local, and Tribal officials and interested stakeholders to discuss the draft Revised Guidelines as well as 9 public listening sessions across the country attended by over 700 participants to facilitate feedback. All relevant comments received in response to these efforts have been posted to the public rulemaking docket on the Federal eRulemaking portal at https://www.regulations.gov/document/FEMA-2015-0006-0001/comment. Comments from meetings and listening sessions can be found at https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FEMA-2015-0006/document. Additionally, FEMA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in 2016 seeking public comment on FEMA’s proposed implementation of the Revised Guidelines. All relevant comments received in response to the 2016 NPRM were posted to the public rulemaking docket on the Federal eRulemaking portal at https://www.regulations.gov/document/FEMA-2015-0006-0373/comment.