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Twenty US states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the termination of FEMA's BRIC programme
The states argue that the cuts endanger communities by halting essential mitigation efforts
They seek to restore the multi-billion dollar grants that have fortified infrastructure against natural disasters for decades
On July 16, 2025, a coalition of 20 states filed a lawsuit against the US administration for terminating a multi-billion dollar grant programme aimed at strengthening infrastructure before natural disasters strike.
The states seek to block what they claim is the unlawful discontinuation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) programme, which offered federal funding for projects aimed at preparing for and mitigating natural disasters.
The lawsuit filed before the United States District Court (for the District of Massachusetts) said that FEMA pre-disaster mitigation programme fortified communities against disasters before they struck, rather than responding afterward. This reduced injuries, saved lives, protected property and saved money.
For the past 30 years, the BRIC programme provided communities with resources to proactively fortify against natural disasters. Grants were disbursed for a variety of disaster mitigation efforts, including levees to protect against floods, safe rooms to provide shelter from tornadoes, vegetation management to reduce damage from fires and seismic retrofitting to fortify buildings for earthquakes.
During the last four years alone, FEMA had selected around 2,000 projects to receive $4.5 billion in BRIC. However, on April 4, 2025, FEMA announced that the BRIC programme was ending.
The legal application said that the impact of the shutdown has been devastating. “Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or shut down hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding. Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars for planning, permitting, and environmental review are now threatened.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F Neronha joined the coalition of 20 states in suing Trump administration for unlawfully cutting billions in disaster mitigation funding. “There’s no denying that Rhode Island is particularly susceptible to the ever-increasing effects of climate change, which is why we need to stay ahead of the curve on mitigating risk,” said Neronha.
The President understands that he and his Administration do not have the power to unilaterally withhold Congressionally allocated funding to the states, and yet here we are again.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F Neronha
"Over the past six months, Democratic attorneys general from across the nation have sued to claw back rightfully allocated funds for everything from education and infrastructure to public health and emergency management," Neronha added.
The lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Neronha along with the attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the governor of Pennsylvania.
“This illegal cut endangers the communities most vulnerable to natural disasters,” Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said.
“Communities and states face devastating consequences when the federal government doesn’t meet its obligations to the public, and I will hold the Trump administration accountable for abandoning their safety,” Attorney General Brown said.
In January 2025, while touring western North Carolina to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, President Trump announced that an executive order had been signed to initiate the process of "fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think frankly FEMA is not good". By the executive order, January 24, 2025 the FEMA Review Council was established.
The council has to produce a report for the President that includes the assessment of the adequacy of FEMA’s response to disasters during the previous four years, including sufficiency of staffing. The council would also evaluate “whether FEMA can serve its functions as a support agency, providing supplemental Federal assistance, to the States rather than supplanting State control of disaster relief”. Since January 20, 2025 FEMA has seen around 2,000 staff departures.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein on May 23, 2025 released a statement on FEMA’s denial of North Carolina’s request for an extension of its 100 per cent cost reimbursement for debris removal.
"FEMA’s denial of our appeal will cost North Carolina taxpayers potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up out west. The money we have to pay toward debris removal will mean less money towards supporting our small businesses, rebuilding downtown infrastructure, repairing our water and sewer systems, and other critical needs."
Final summary: A coalition of 20 US states has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the termination of FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities programme. The states argue that the cuts to this multi-billion dollar grant program endanger communities by halting essential disaster mitigation efforts. They seek to restore funding that has fortified infrastructure against natural disasters for decades.
