State Attorneys General Lawsuit Successful in Preventing Shutdown of FEMA Disaster Resilience Funding
Dec 15, 2025
By Noah Patton, NLIHC Director of Disaster Recovery
On December 11, a Massachusetts U.S. District Court issued a ruling in favor of the Massachusetts Attorney General, along with a coalition of 20 other states, that sought to prevent the administration from ending FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program. FEMA moved quickly at the start of 2025 to reallocate funds from the program to other FEMA operations and programs, arguing that the $1 billion in program funds could be better spent elsewhere. The lawsuit filed by the MA Attorney General alleged that FEMA lacked the authority to decline to spend funds appropriated by Congress for the program—a U.S. District Judge agreed.
The announcement of the pause in BRIC grants earlier this year coincided with multiple changes to federal programs across the government that sought to remove references to climate change. Over the past 4 years, nearly 2,000 projects have received approximately $4.5 billion in funding nationwide. Grants focused on ways to minimize future disaster risk, from increasing flood resilience to upgrading bridges, to increasing the ability of homes to withstand future disasters. The program forms a central part of FEMA’s efforts to increase disaster mitigation across the country.
The lawsuit seeking to prevent the termination of the program was led by the Massachusetts Attorney General, along with the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All disaster mitigation projects are now paused due to the program’s cancellation.
It is unclear when FEMA will release BRIC funds as directed by this ruling, and this ruling could be appealed by the federal government. Regardless, this ruling is a step forward in ensuring that adequate disaster resilience and mitigation funding is available to communities at risk across the country.