NAHB Members Provide Final Recommendations for New WOTUS Rule

NAHB members concluded their participation in multiple “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) listening sessions with strong showings in Washington, D.C., and Salt Lake City.

Following member participation in the listening sessions for industry and agricultural stakeholders on May 1 and the general public on May 14, the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (i.e., “the Agencies”) held two additional listening sessions to receive recommendations for a new WOTUS rule.

On May 19, the Small Business Administration convened a listening session for small business stakeholders in Washington, D.C. NAHB members and staff addressed the impacts of CWA Section 404 permitting on small businesses:

• Vince Messerly, member of the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio and chairman of NAHB’s Environmental Issues Committee;
• Robert Jackson, member of the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association (NC) and co-chair of the Environmental Issues Committee;
• D. Logan, member of the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association (NC); and
• Michael Mittelholzer, NAHB AVP of Environmental Policy.

A final listening session for the public took place May 29 in Salt Lake City. NAHB members and state HBA staff spoke about the importance of confining WOTUS to “relatively permanent” waters to ensure that “adjacent wetlands” are indistinguishable from other jurisdictional features, and limiting the extent of jurisdictional ditches. In addition, they expressed on-the-ground effects of onerous stormwater management requirements.

Speakers included:

• Ross Ford, Utah Home Builders Association;
• Cody Rhees, Northern Wasatch Home Builders Association (UT); and
• Jay Roberts, Skagit/Island Counties Builders Association (WA) and Central Washington Home Builders Association.

In total, 12 NAHB members and four staff members from NAHB and state home builder associations (HBAs), representing 11 states, provided oral statements at listening sessions.

In addition to the WOTUS listening session, NAHB has been actively participating in other policy discussions on WOTUS:

• NAHB participated in an industry coalition meeting on April 22, 2025, focused on the Agencies’ reauthorization of Nationwide Permits (NWPs). The industry coalition meeting included staff from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, Council of Environmental Quality, Corps, EPA, and Small Business Administration. NAHB staff stressed to the Agencies the importance of completing the required rulemaking process to reauthorize existing NWPs prior to their expiration on March 2026. 
• NAHB submitted written comments on April 23, 2025.
• NAHB urged the Trump administration to make additional improvements to the NWPs, which NAHB Immediate Past Chairman Carl Harris testified to before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Specific improvements included:
  • Rescinding the Corps’ current workload policy of deprioritizing responding to requests for “stand-alone” approved jurisdictional determinations (AJDs),
  • Increasing the allowable wetland acreage disturbance from 0.5 acres to an acre or larger, and
  • Establishing firm permitting review deadlines upon the Corps and EPA during the NWP process.

Taken together, these changes to WOTUS and the CWA Section 404 permitting program hold potential to accomplish long-sought improvements.

NAHB looks forward to reviewing a proposed WOTUS rule and proposed NWPs later this summer. NAHB is hopeful that the combined efforts will honor the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision and result in more efficient permitting.