Flooding
A federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of $3.6 billion in disaster preparedness funding previously cut by the Trump administration.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia had challenged the April cancellation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The program, established in 2018, helps communities pay for projects that harden infrastructure and increase resilience as a form of disaster mitigation.
The judge found the Trump administration’s cancellation of the program to be unlawful, ruling that Congress had appropriated the funds for this specific purpose. There is “an inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law,” the judge ruled.
The program must pay the billions in funding that had been awarded to projects through BRIC but not yet paid. The funds will go toward projects like improving stormwater drainage and hardening electrical lines in hundreds of communities, in both Republican- and Democratic-led states.
The future of FEMA as a whole has been in question this year. Multiple times, the Trump administration has floated the idea of radically changing the agency or even abolishing it altogether.
The FEMA Review Council was supposed to present a report with recommended reforms for the agency last week, but the meeting was abruptly canceled by the White House.
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