Removing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Home Construction
This Presidential Action establishes a policy favoring the reduction of regulatory barriers across federal agencies to lower the costs and speed the process of residential construction, thereby promoting American homeownership.
The order directs components within the Departments of the Army, EPA, Commerce, HUD, Transportation, Agriculture, and Energy, alongside the FHFA and the Council on Environmental Quality, to review and revise existing rules—particularly those related to water permitting, environmental review (NEPA/CWA), building codes, and development mandates—that unnecessarily constrain housing inventory.
Furthermore, it requires HUD to develop best practices for state and local governments to mimic this deregulation and mandates an evaluation of aligning Opportunity Zone incentives to specifically boost single-family home construction.
Arguments For
Reducing regulatory burdens, particularly those related to stormwater, wetlands, and environmental permitting (like Section 404 of the CWA), directly lowers the cost and time required to build new homes, thereby increasing housing supply and affordability.
Directed reviews of agency rules (EDA density guidelines, DOT programs, HUD/FHFA housing rules) aim to remove constraints that specifically impede the construction of affordable single-family and manufactured homes, promoting development in suburban and exurban areas.
Mandating the development of best practices for state and local governments—such as capping permit timelines, allowing by-right development, and limiting costly mandates—encourages deregulation nationwide to spur construction.
Aligning federal incentives, like Opportunity Zone tax benefits, with single-family home construction encourages private investment in areas needing revitalization and expansion of housing stock.
Arguments Against
Reducing environmental review requirements under NEPA and CWA may lead to increased pollution, degraded water quality, and inadequate protection of wetlands and critical waterways, prioritizing construction speed over ecological health.
Challenging existing energy-efficiency or water-use standards for housing could result in less resilient, less sustainable homes that impose higher long-term utility costs on new owners, counteracting stated affordability goals.
Direct federal instruction to state and local governments regarding zoning, permitting caps, and the relaxing of aesthetic requirements may represent federal overreach into traditional local land-use authority.
Streamlining procedures could reduce the rigor of required impact analyses, potentially leading to infrastructure inadequacies (roads, water/sewer) that fail to keep pace with new residential development.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
The President invokes constitutional and statutory power to issue this binding directive to the executive branch.
Section 1. Purpose. The American dream of homeownership depends on a dynamic housing market in which a varied inventory of new homes is built and renovated each year. Layers of unnecessary regulatory barriers, slow permitting processes, and onerous mandates at all levels of government have delayed construction, restricted development, and driven up the costs of new housing. These constraints have made housing less affordable for many Americans.
It is the policy of my Administration to reduce regulatory barriers to building homes and to steward taxpayer dollars in a manner that promotes housing affordability.
The stated purpose is to address high housing costs caused by excessive regulation, slow approvals, and burdensome mandates in government processes across all levels.
The official policy is established to actively reduce these regulatory obstacles to home construction and manage taxpayer funds to ensure housing remains affordable.
Sec. 2. Targeting Federal Regulatory Barriers to Residential Development. (a) The Secretary of the Army, acting through the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall review and revise requirements related to stormwater, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water to reduce housing construction and ownership costs, streamline regulatory and agency decision-making processes, reduce property tax burdens, and increase insurability, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law. Such requirements shall include:
(i) the Construction General Permit for stormwater discharges from construction activity;
(ii) federally issued Total Maximum Daily Loads;
(iii) construction site and post-construction requirements for Municipal Separate Stormwater System permits;
(iv) Federal standards for permits under section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. 1344, for the discharge of dredged and fill material into waters of the United States; and
(v) Federal standards for assumption of dredge and fill permitting by States and tribes under section 404(g) of CWA.
(b) The Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) shall, within their respective authorities, consider eliminating unduly burdensome rules and reforming programs that constrain residential development and impede housing affordability, especially the construction of affordable single-family homes as well as suburban and exurban neighborhoods, including, as needed:
(i) the Economic Development Administration’s guidelines and investment priorities concerning development density;
(ii) the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program;
(iii) the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing Program; and
(iv) the FHFA’s guidelines and regulations regarding chattel lending for manufactured housing and incentivizing low-balance home mortgages.
(c) The Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Energy, and the Director of FHFA shall, within their respective authorities, take appropriate action to reform and, where appropriate, eliminate unduly burdensome or costly energy-efficiency, water-use, or alternative-energy requirements regarding housing, including manufactured housing, to the maximum extent practicable and consistent with applicable law. Such action shall include reviewing and revising, as needed:
(i) the Energy Conservation Program’s Energy Conservation Standards for Manufactured Housing;
(ii) the Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing;
(iii) residential building energy codes subject to review by the Secretary of Energy; and
(iv) water and energy efficiency improvement standards for FHFA’s duty to serve underserved market properties.
Section 2 mandates the Army and EPA to review and revise rules concerning water bodies, stormwater, and wetlands permits under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
The goal is to reduce construction costs and streamline decision-making.
It also requires the Secretaries of Commerce, HUD, Transportation, and the FHFA Director to eliminate burdensome rules concerning development density, transportation programs, HUD housing obstacle programs, and lending rules for manufactured homes.
Additionally, the Secretaries of Agriculture, HUD, Energy, and the FHFA Director must review and potentially eliminate costly energy and water efficiency requirements for all housing, specifically targeting conservation standards for manufactured homes and federally financed new construction.
Sec. 3. Streamlining Federal Permitting Requirements for Residential Development. (a) The Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality shall provide guidance to executive departments and agencies (agencies) on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, including through the establishment, adoption, or application of categorical exclusions, in a manner that maximally exempts or reduces burdens on housing construction, preservation, adaptive re-use, and infrastructure that facilitates housing construction, such as roads, water, sewer, and other projects.
(b) The Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation shall develop guidance on maximally exempting, or reducing burdens on, housing construction and infrastructure that facilitates housing construction, such as roads, water, sewer, and other projects under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act so that reporting requirements are no more burdensome than necessary.
The Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality must guide agencies to use categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) more often.
This is intended to minimize federal review burdens on projects related to building homes, reusing buildings, and essential supporting infrastructure like roads and utilities.
The Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is tasked with issuing guidance under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
This guidance should minimize reporting requirements for housing construction and infrastructure projects, ensuring they are not excessively burdensome.
Sec. 4. Boosting Housing Affordability Through State and Local Regulatory Best Practices. (a) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, shall develop and promulgate a series of regulatory best practices for State and local governments to promote housing construction and affordability, including:
(i) streamlining permitting processes for housing developments by, for example, capping permitting timelines and fees; allowing by-right development for single-family homes; limiting retroactive application of new or changed building codes; allowing third-party inspections and appropriate builder choice on certified entities for inspections and studies; and ensuring swift dispute resolution with government agencies and private parties regarding construction matters;
(ii) curtailing mandates that increase housing construction costs, such as green-energy building requirements or other energy-choice restrictions, non-evidence-based building codes, and unreasonable building-code-adoption timelines;
(iii) re-examining restrictions on the use of manufactured or modular housing on the basis of the construction method rather than objective standards for building and safety, aesthetic requirements, or prohibitions on construction when comparable site-built housing is permitted; and
(iv) removing arbitrary limitations on residential housing development beyond urban centers, such as urban growth boundaries, growth moratoria, and commuting penalties.
(b) The Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall, within their respective authorities, take steps to revise, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, regulations, guidance, grant applications and requirements, technical assistance, and other relevant agency documents or practices to advance the best practices issued pursuant to subsection (a) of this section.
Within 60 days, HUD, in consultation with the Domestic Policy Advisor, must create best practice guidelines for state and local governments to boost construction.
These suggested practices include faster permitting processes, fee caps, allowing 'by-right' development for single-family homes, limiting retroactive code changes, using third-party inspectors, and ensuring fast dispute resolution.
Other recommended practices involve reducing cost-increasing mandates like certain green energy rules, questioning non-evidence-based codes, re-evaluating restrictions on manufactured homes based only on construction method, and eliminating controls on development outside urban cores, such as growth boundaries.
Federal departments must then revise their own regulations and assistance programs to support these local best practices.
Sec. 5. Facilitating New Residential Construction in Opportunity Zones. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall jointly evaluate Administration actions to better align programs and incentives with the Opportunity Zone tax incentives to expand investment in single-family home construction, including considering lawful mechanisms to link grants, financing tools, or other incentives with new or increased investment in Qualified Opportunity Funds engaged in the development and sale of single-family homes.
(b) The Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall also assess opportunities to coordinate the Opportunity Zone incentives described in subsection (a) of this section with the New Markets Tax Credit under 26 U.S.C. 45D to promote single-family home construction in census tracts that qualify both as Qualified Opportunity Zones and as low-income communities for the purposes of the New Markets Tax Credit.
The Treasury Secretary and HUD Secretary must review current Administration efforts to better link existing Opportunity Zone tax incentives with the goal of increasing single-family home construction.
They must explore ways to connect federal financial tools or grants specifically to increased investment in Qualified Opportunity Funds that are developing and selling single-family houses.
They are also required to analyze how Opportunity Zone incentives can be coordinated with the New Markets Tax Credit to specifically encourage building single-family homes in areas that qualify under both programs.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(d) If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
(e) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This final section lays out standard legal limitations.
It clarifies that the order does not override existing statutory authority vested in department heads or the budgetary authority of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Implementation must comply with existing law and available funding.
Crucially, the order explicitly states it does not create any new enforceable legal rights for any party against the government.
Finally, it assigns the cost of publishing the order to HUD.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 13, 2026.
This section contains the signature block, indicating the order was signed by President Donald J. Trump on March 13, 2026, from the White House.
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