"Justice Department lawyers are defending a FEMA program that environmentalists support."

"The Trump administration is defending a flood policy imposed by the Biden administration and supported by environmental groups against efforts by Republican-led states to overturn it in court.

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump recently asked a federal judge in Louisiana to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 10 Republican state attorneys general who say the policy has unfairly raised the cost of federal flood insurance.

The policy was launched in 2021 by the Biden administration after decades of offering discounted insurance had led the federal government to understate the flood risk faced by millions of properties covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency program. The higher insurance rates were hailed by environmentalists as a way to discourage construction in flood-prone areas. Rates are decreasing for roughly 20 percent of the insurance program’s 4.5 million policies."

Thomas Frank reports for E&E News August 14, 2026.