FEMA is reopening the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program after a yearlong hiatus, making the federal money available again for state, local and other governments seeking projects to reduce losses from natural hazards. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would open applications for the BRIC program less than three weeks after a federal judge ordered FEMA to make the funding available.
FEMA said the agency will make $1 billion available for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which supports preparedness work intended to “harden against natural hazards like fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.” In a statement announcing the resumption, Karen S. Evans, FEMA’s acting leader, said, “When done correctly, mitigation activities save lives and reduce the cost of future disasters.”
The reopening follows a court fight over FEMA’s cancellation of BRIC. FEMA previously ended the program last April, after the agency’s acting leader at the time, Cameron Hamilton, canceled it, calling the program “wasteful and ineffective,” a decision that lawmakers criticized while FEMA paused roughly $3.6 billion in funding that had been expected to support projects protecting communities and homes across the country.
In recent years, BRIC has been tied to preparedness planning and mitigation efforts that aim to shift spending away from responding to disasters after they occur. The federal government’s position in this latest restart cites the program’s intent to move investments toward proactive mitigation; FEMA said BRIC aims to shift federal investments “away from reactive post-disaster spending towards proactive infrastructure-focused hazard mitigation.”
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns ruled last December 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. Stearns again ordered FEMA this month to take additional steps toward restoring the program.
FEMA also pointed to how it handled the grant while it was stalled, saying it announced last week it would resume program support for BRIC awards when a DHS shutdown ended. FEMA said it had finished evaluating the BRIC program that Trump signed into law during his first term, and said under former President Joe Biden, BRIC had become too bureaucratic and “focused on ‘climate change’ initiatives,” according to FEMA’s statement.
The agency said states will have 120 days to apply for the new funding opportunity, which covers fiscal years 2024 and 2025 after FEMA rescinded last year’s opportunity. Even with the resumption, FEMA said the restart includes new grant rules that would change how states and local governments must approach mitigation projects and how FEMA will distribute funds.
FEMA said the revised program “maximizes state and local responsibility for resilience and risk reduction rather than federal investing in a wide range of activities.” FEMA said the changes include the cessation of funding for hazard mitigation planning and non-financial direct technical assistance, along with an approach that prioritizes major infrastructure projects that are “ready to implement.”
FEMA also said the new grants include caps on how much any single recipient can receive and that they give extra scoring weight to new applicants and “impoverished communities.” The agency’s criteria could affect how quickly communities prepare proposals, and it remains unclear how fast applicants whose projects were previously awarded might receive grant money.
Lawmakers criticized the earlier pause as a delay to projects tied to flood protection and other preparedness needs. Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement that BRIC’s cancellation delayed construction of a flood wall in his district, adding that “Slowing states’ ability to prepare for disasters was shortsighted, and communities like Aberdeen paid the price.”
At the same time, FEMA’s restart arrives amid leadership changes at the department overseeing the agency’s operations. Former FEMA officials, lawmakers and disaster survivors have expressed cautious hope that newly sworn in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin could bring more stability to FEMA after Kristi Noem’s tumultuous tenure, with Mullin endorsing FEMA’s mission at his Senate confirmation hearing and saying he backed efforts to make FEMA more effective, speed up payments to state and local jurisdictions and better serve rural communities.