On Friday, April 4, FEMA announced that it was ending its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program and cancelling all applications for projects in Fiscal Years 2020 to 2023. The announcement also rescinded the notice of funding opportunity for Fiscal Year 2024, which would have allocated $750 million in grants. According to the announcement, any BRIC funds that have not yet been distributed to states, tribes, territories, or other local communities will be returned to the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund or the US Treasury. The decision follows a March 19 Executive Order, Achieving Efficiency Through State and Local Preparedness, that calls for state and local governments to play a more active role in national resilience and preparedness.
The BRIC program, established by Congress through the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, is a pre-disaster grant program that allows grantees to implement hazard mitigation projects to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from future disasters. The intention of the program was to fund diverse hazard mitigation projects with a focus on holistic infrastructure solutions. The program, along with other FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance program grants, is one of the few federal grant programs that provide funding to proactively prevent disasters through infrastructure and management improvements.
The implications for public water systems that had been awarded BRIC funds are, while not altogether clear, concerning. Many AMWA members had utilized, or planned to utilize, millions in BRIC funding to develop projects that would build resilience to dangerous hazards, like flooding, levee breaks, infrastructure failures, fires, tornadoes, and other extreme weather. The FEMA BRIC and Flood Mitigation Assistance dashboard provides examples of projects to date. The BRIC program typically covered up to 75% of project costs, so the loss of this assistance may severely hamper members’ abilities to move forward with major projects.
AMWA will be discussing potential impacts and concerns about FEMA in its upcoming Sustainability Working Group meeting on April 21. During the meeting, members will discuss FEMA’s current request for input on disaster response, as well as the impacts of this decision. Members concerned or impacted by the halting of BRIC funds who seek AMWA’s support should email Jessica Evans, AMWA’s Senior Manager of Government Affairs and Sustainability Policy to attend the discussion or learn more.