Judge Orders FEMA to Restore $1 Billion Disaster Mitigation Program

FEMA opened applications for a major resilience grant program that the agency canceled last year, less than three weeks after a federal judge ordered the funding made available. The move came only after the agency spent months defying an earlier court order, prompting states to drag FEMA back before a Massachusetts federal judge.

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. States will have 120 days to apply for the new funding opportunity, which covers fiscal years 2024 and 2025, since FEMA rescinded last year's opportunity.

The road to that application portal was contentious. The Trump administration said in April 2025 it was "ending" BRIC, which helped communities with predisaster projects to harden infrastructure and improve resilience. The administration called the program "wasteful and ineffective" and said it would halt $3.6 billion in funding awarded but not yet paid. The program's disruption upended projects across hundreds of communities in both Republican- and Democratic-led states, thwarting plans to improve stormwater drainage, harden electrical lines and even help relocate households living in areas most vulnerable to disasters.

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. After the agency failed to release funding, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns again ordered FEMA this month to take steps toward restoring the program.

In his ruling, Judge Stearns found that "there is an inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law, and the potential hardship accruing to the States in the absence of an injunction is great. The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives. It need not be gainsaid that the imminence of disasters is not deterred by bureaucratic obstruction." Stearns added: "This is not a case about judicial encroachment on the discretionary authority of the Executive Branch. This is a case about unlawful Executive encroachment on the prerogative of Congress to appropriate funds for a specific and compelling purpose, and no more than that."

The judge ordered FEMA to provide states and local governments with details of grant allocations from the BRIC program, acknowledging "tangible steps" by FEMA to release the money while noting the delays could in part "be attributed to staffing shortages resulting from layoffs and the current budgetary freeze" with the Department of Homeland Security partially shut down amid a lapse in funding.

Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown, one of the lead plaintiffs, offered no diplomatic cushioning in his response. "The judge's order in this case was unequivocal: FEMA must restore the BRIC program," Brown said. "We will keep fighting to make sure FEMA stops wasting time and carries out the program as Congress intended."

The lawsuit was led by Massachusetts and Washington and joined by Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Even Republican lawmakers like Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana opposed the cancellations and called for BRIC's reinstatement. "It protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run," Cassidy said on the Senate floor a week after the funding cancellation. "That's efficient in my book."

FEMA's new acting leader, Karen S. Evans, framed the resumption in measured terms. "When done correctly, mitigation activities save lives and reduce the cost of future disasters," Evans said in a statement announcing the reopening.

While the resumed funding restores access to badly needed assistance for some areas, FEMA imposed new rules aligned with the Trump administration's attempt to push more responsibility for disaster management onto states. The new rules include the cessation of funding for hazard mitigation planning and non-financial direct technical assistance, which 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.

The new grants also include certain caps on how much any single recipient can receive and prioritize new applicants and "impoverished communities," changes that could be nods to past critiques that the BRIC program favored coastal states and was difficult for rural areas to access.

The Trump administration has slashed disaster preparedness dollars across multiple FEMA programs. It has 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.

Former FEMA officials, lawmakers and disaster survivors expressed cautious hope that newly sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin could bring more stability to the agency after Kristi Noem's tumultuous tenure. Mullin endorsed FEMA's mission at his Senate confirmation hearing and said he backed efforts to make FEMA more effective, speed up payments to state and local jurisdictions and better serve rural communities.

Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, called the court's intervention essential. "Mitigation is a race against time, and this ruling provides the necessary framework for the agency to honor its commitments to the state and local partners who are on the front lines of disaster resilience," Berginnis said.

In the last decade, there have been nearly as many weather- and climate-related disasters causing $1 billion or more in damages as there were in the 35 years preceding that period. 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. With the 120-day application clock now running, state and local governments are scrambling to make up for a year of lost time.