The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday opened applications for a major resilience grant program that the agency canceled last year, less than three weeks after a federal judge ordered FEMA to make the funding available.
FEMA will make $1 billion available for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which helps states, local governments, territories and tribes take on preparedness projects to harden against natural hazards like fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.
“When done correctly, mitigation activities save lives and reduce the cost of future disasters,” Karen S. Evans, FEMA's acting leader, said in a statement announcing the resumption.
The funding announcement comes after FEMA under a previous acting leader, Cameron Hamilton, canceled the BRIC program last April, calling it “wasteful and ineffective.” That decision drew blowback from Republican and Democratic lawmakers as roughly $3.6 billion was halted for what amounted to several years’ worth of projects to protect infrastructure, communities and homes across the U.S.
The Trump administration has slashed disaster preparedness dollars across multiple FEMA programs. It’s been one year since President Donald Trump approved any state or tribe’s request for hazard mitigation funding, a typical add on to major disaster declarations.
Now, FEMA's notice announcing the grant opportunity could signal the administration is embracing aspects of mitigation to safeguard against disasters, stating “BRIC aims to shift the focus of federal investments away from reactive post-disaster spending towards proactive infrastructure-focused hazard mitigation."
A federal judge last December ruled that FEMA could not eliminate BRIC and ordered the agency to reverse course after a coalition of 22 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over the cancellation. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns again ordered FEMA this month to take more steps toward restoring the program.
Last week, FEMA announced it would resume program support for BRIC awards when the DHS shutdown ended, saying that it had finished evaluating the program that Trump signed into law during his first term. Under former President Joe Biden, BRIC became too bureaucratic and “focused on ‘climate change’ initiatives,” FEMA said in a statement.
States will have 120 days to apply for the new funding opportunity, which covers fiscal years 2024 and 2025, since FEMA rescinded last year's opportunity.
While the resumed funding restores access to badly needed assistance for some areas, FEMA imposed new rules that are in line with the Trump administration’s attempt to push more responsibility for disaster management on states.
The rules, which include the cessation of funding for hazard mitigation planning and non-financial direct technical assistance, could impact smaller communities with fewer resources and expertise.
“The program now maximizes state and local responsibility for resilience and risk reduction rather than federal investing in a wide range of activities,” a FEMA statement said.
Additional changes include prioritizing major infrastructure projects, with an emphasis on those that “are ready to implement,” according to FEMA, a criterion that could also be harder for small communities to meet.
However, the new grants also include certain caps on how much any single recipient can receive, and give some extra scoring weight to new applicants and “impoverished communities.” Those changes could be nods to past critiques that the BRIC program favored coastal states and was difficult for rural areas to access.
Meanwhile, it's still unclear how quickly applicants can expect grant money they were already awarded.
Rep. Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington and ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that BRIC’s cancellation delayed construction of a flood wall in his district. “Slowing states’ ability to prepare for disasters was shortsighted, and communities like Aberdeen paid the price," Larsen said.
In the last decade, there have been almost as many weather- and climate-related disasters causing $1 billion in damages or more as there were in the 35 years preceding that, according to a Climate Central database.
Multiple studies have shown that preemptive investments in disaster readiness can yield significant savings. A 2024 study funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found every $1 invested in disaster preparation saved $13 in economic impact, damage and cleanup costs.
Former FEMA officials, lawmakers and disaster survivors have expressed cautious hope that newly sworn in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin could bring FEMA more stability after Kristi Noem’s tumultuous tenure. Mullin endorsed FEMA’s mission at his Senate confirmation hearing last week and said he backed efforts to make it more effective, speed up payments to state and local jurisdictions and better serve rural communities.
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