NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • February 20, 2025
For the past 25 years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has helped develop building codes, the construction standards that help houses survive hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes. Now, the Trump Administration has ordered that to stop. FEMA is dropping out of the latest effort to improve building codes, taking its name off recommendations that its experts have already developed and submitted. Strengthening building codes has historically been opposed by the homebuilding and construction industries over concerns about the cost. Studies show modern building codes have saved billions of dollars in damage from natural disasters.