Trump Signs Executive Order 14394 Ordering Federal Barriers to Affordable Home Construction Removed
On March 13, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14394, 'Removing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Home Construction,' at the White House in Washington. The order states that layers of unnecessary regulatory barriers, slow permitting processes and onerous mandates at all levels of government have delayed construction and driven up the cost of new housing, and that it is the policy of the administration to reduce regulatory barriers to building homes and promote housing affordability.
The order directs the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to review and revise requirements related to stormwater, wetlands, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water, including the Construction General Permit for stormwater discharges and federal standards for permits under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, to reduce construction and ownership costs. The Secretaries of Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation, and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are to consider eliminating unduly burdensome rules and reforming programs that constrain residential development, while the Secretaries of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Energy, and the FHFA Director, are to reform and, where appropriate, eliminate unduly burdensome or costly energy-efficiency, water-use or alternative-energy requirements for housing.
On permitting, the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality is to provide guidance on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act that maximally exempts or reduces burdens on housing construction and supporting infrastructure, and the Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is to develop similar guidance under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
The order also requires the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to develop and promulgate within 60 days a series of regulatory best practices for state and local governments, including capping permitting timelines and fees, allowing by-right development for single-family homes, limiting retroactive application of new building codes, and re-examining restrictions on manufactured or modular housing based on construction method rather than objective standards. The Treasury and HUD Secretaries are also to evaluate aligning federal programs with Opportunity Zone tax incentives to expand investment in single-family home construction.
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: GSM 行政令统一模板（美国总统行政令）
