FEMA required to restore billions in disaster mitigation funding

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown and a multistate coalition recently secured a court order requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to take concrete steps to reverse the termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program (BRIC) and restore billions in funding to communities relying on the program.

In April 2025, FEMA abruptly cancelled the BRIC grant program which had earmarked $84 million for levee projects in Aberdeen and Hoquiam. Last August, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston blocked the Trump administration from redirecting billions of dollars intended for disaster preparedness work nationwide, including $182 million for 27 projects in Washington state.

The original complaint read, “Located on Washington’s rural western coastline, Aberdeen and Hoquiam’s working-class communities have experienced decades of severe flooding caused by intense rainfall and coastal surges. As a direct response to these recurring disasters, Washington applied for BRIC funding to construct concrete floodwalls, miles of earthen levees, and raised roadways that would protect these communities from further damage. Once completed, these levees would protect 1,354 businesses, 5,100 properties, and more than 3,000 jobs located in the designated flood zone. They would also reduce construction and insurance costs, leaving more than $5 million per year in residents’ pockets, and promote economic development and future investments.”

Without the protection the proposed levees would provide, residents and businesses in the floodplain along the Wishkah, Hoquiam and Chehalis rivers are forced to pay high flood insurance rates and are subject to FEMA’s 50% rule, which dictates that if the cost of repairs for damage or improvements to a structure in a flood zone exceeds 50% of its pre-damage market value, it is deemed “substantially damaged” or “substantially improved.” Consequently, the structure must be elevated or brought up to current flood-resistant building codes.

In January of this year, the Washington Legislature awarded $17 million to Aberdeen and Hoquiam to help fund the projected $160.5 million Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Protection Project in Grays Harbor County. State lawmakers set aside $17 million for the flood mitigation project in the current state biennial budget, which went into effect July 1, 2025, and will conclude on June 30, 2027. This grant builds on the $18.5 million grant the Legislature had already targeted for the project in the 2023-25 state two-year budget

For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on mitigation and community resilience, the program has saved lives, reduced injury, protected property, and saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs.

“The judge’s order in this case was unequivocal: FEMA must restore the BRIC program. Communities across Washington are counting on these dollars for vital disaster mitigation projects,” Brown said. “We will keep fighting to make sure FEMA stops wasting time and carries out the program as Congress intended.”

In Washington, about two dozen BRIC projects totaling more than $150 million have been in limbo due to the federal government’s actions. Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide.

On July 16, 2025, Brown co-led the coalition in filing a lawsuit to prevent FEMA from terminating its BRIC program – an action which had already delayed, scaled back, and cancelled hundreds of mitigation projects across the country. On Dec. 11, the coalition won their case. The court declared the termination of this congressionally mandated program unlawful and ordered FEMA to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination. Last month, the coalition filed a motion asking the District of Massachusetts to enforce its Dec. 11 order, as FEMA had offered no indication that it had complied with the order at that point. The court sided with the coalition and granted its requested relief.

This new court order requires FEMA to make pre-disaster mitigation funds available as required by statute, communicate the status of current BRIC projects to the states, and file status reports with the court outlining any actions taken or planned to comply with the order. The order also requires FEMA to issue a fiscal year 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the BRIC program within 21 days.

Joining Brown in securing this order are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Once complete, the levees will serve as barriers between land and water to protect the cities from flooding rivers, coastal storms, king tides, sea level rise and other high-water events. The flood mitigation project also supports the long-term Chehalis Basin Strategy which aims to improve the health and resilience of local communities in the Chehalis River basin by reducing flood-related damage.