On April 4, 2025, FEMA announced its decision to terminate the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. FEMA created BRIC to implement a law passed in 2018 creating additional funding for state, local, territorial and Tribal governments to invest in predisaster risk mitigation.
FEMA also canceled all previous BRIC awards from 2020-2023, including $882 million in BRIC funds appropriated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The cancellation affects billions in awarded grants, primarily for state and local governments’ disaster preparedness projects to protect critical infrastructure, update communities’ hazard mitigation plans, and fund local emergency management offices. FEMA argued the program was an example of “waste, fraud and abuse” and “politicized.”
Twenty states sued FEMA, challenging the termination of the BRIC program. On Aug. 5, 2025, a federal district court barred FEMA from using BRIC funds for other purposes while the litigation is ongoing.
President Trump has also consistently denied states’ requests for other federal sources of hazard mitigation funding under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). States, Tribes, and local governments have traditionally used HMGP funding for otherwise cost-prohibitive projects that reduce the impact of future disasters, including installation of warning systems, elevating or relocating homes in floodplains, safe rooms for hurricanes and tornadoes, hardening homes at risk from wildfires, and improving drainage or slope stability. Prior to 2025, if the president granted a state’s or Tribe’s request for a major disaster declaration, the president also approved their request for HMGP funding, with very limited exceptions.
Background
Under President Biden, FEMA updated its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Policy, effective Apr. 26, 2022. The guidance included environmental disasters exacerbated by climate change. Key changes from the previous policy included a new principle to “promote equity, including by helping members of disadvantaged groups and prioritizing 40 percent of the benefits to disadvantaged communities,” consistent with the administration’s Justice40 Initiative. The guidance also clarified FEMA policy changes including 100% federal coverage of applicant’s management costs; language to promote projects that account for the future effects of climate change; and changes to FEMA’s definition of “small impoverished communities” deleting the unemployment metric previously required.