NAHB Recommends Permitting Improvements to EPA and Corps

On Oct. 16, NAHB met with political leadership from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) to discuss the agencies’ regulatory priorities for 2026 and beyond.

The meetings provided NAHB an opportunity to recommend improvements to the Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permitting program — covering federal wetland and stream permits — and to the compensatory mitigation process for unavoidable impacts to those features.

Permitting Progress and Improvements

NAHB thanked the agencies for moving quickly to develop a new definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), including existing interpretation of “continuous surface connection” in accordance with the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision. NAHB also emphasized the importance of the Corps reissuing nationwide permits (NWPs) for impacts to federally regulated wetlands and streams. Nearly 90% of federal wetlands permits are issued under NWPs, and this essential permitting program will stop issuing permits on March 16, 2026, unless the Corps finalizes a rule to reauthorize it.

In addition to discussing the forthcoming WOTUS rule and reauthorization of the NWP program, NAHB offered recommendations to improve federal wetlands permitting and compensatory mitigation requirements. 

Specifically, NAHB urged EPA and Corps leadership to:

• Pursue additional regulatory reforms — such as increasing NWP acreage eligibility and raising the threshold for mandatory compensatory mitigation — to help fulfill President Trump’s permitting reform directives. These changes would enable more single-family, multifamily and mixed-use projects to qualify for expedited permitting and reduce compliance costs.
• Expand the availability and lower the cost of mitigation credits.

Impact of Government Shutdown

With most rulemakings on hold amid the ongoing federal government shutdown, NAHB anticipates that Corps District Offices, which issue CWA Section 404 permits and jurisdictional determinations, will suspend permitting activities in early November due to a lapse in federal appropriations. The Corps has been using unspent FY 2024 funds to continue permitting and enforcement operations since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, but those funds are nearly depleted. 

To advance the highly anticipated WOTUS rulemaking, the current federal funding impasse must be resolved.