Judge blocks Trump admin from reallocating disaster prevention funds
A federal judge has blocked the Trump governance from reallocating billions of dollars away from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) disaster prevention program. Judge richard Stearns of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction stopping the administration’s efforts to terminate the program and redirect its funds. The BRIC program provides grants to states for projects aimed at mitigating disaster risks through infrastructure improvements. Twenty Democratic-led states filed the lawsuit last month, arguing that ending BRIC woudl delay or cancel critical mitigation projects, increasing disaster risks for communities. Although the Trump administration claimed it had not officially ended the program and was still considering next steps, the court found evidence that FEMA had already begun shutting down funding opportunities and moving toward termination. The administration warned that the injunction could limit FEMA’s flexibility in responding to emergencies, but the judge sided with the states to preserve the program for now.
Judge blocks Trump administration from reallocating disaster prevention funds
A federal judge prevented the Trump administration from reallocating billions of dollars to a FEMA disaster prevention program on Tuesday.
Judge Richard Stearns of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction blocking allocated funds from being steered away from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. The program awards grants to fund projects in states that aim to mitigate disaster risks before they happen through infrastructure improvements.
“Although the Government equivocates about whether it has, in fact, ended the BRIC program, the States’ evidence of steps taken by FEMA to implement the announced termination portend the conclusion that a determination has in fact been made and that FEMA is inching towards a fait accompli,” Stearns wrote in the order.
“The agency has cancelled new funding opportunities and informed stakeholders that they should no longer expect to obtain any unobligated funds in existing projects,” the order continued.
The lawsuit was filed last month by 20 Democratic-led states after the Trump administration announced in April that it planned to end the BRIC program. The administration had argued in court filings that, despite an initial announcement of the program’s termination in April, it had not ended the program or reallocated any funds and was still exploring what to do with BRIC.
“DHS and FEMA continue to evaluate whether to end the BRIC program or to revise it in a manner consistent to achieve its original purpose,” the administration said in a filing. “Any final agency decisions regarding the future of the BRIC program, however, will need to be approved by the Secretary or the Deputy Secretary of DHS.”
The administration also warned that a preliminary injunction “would not preserve the status quo” but “would instead impose a new and significant restriction on FEMA’s emergency response flexibility, potentially limiting the agency’s ability to respond to major disasters in real time.”
JUDGES GET EMOTIONAL ON TRUMP EFFORTS TO END TEMPORARY IMMIGRATION PROGRAMS
In an April announcement that BRIC was “ending,” a FEMA spokesperson called the program “yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program” and said “it was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
In their complaint to the court, the states alleged that ending the BRIC would force jurisdictions to “delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding” across the country and leave people at “higher risk of harm from natural disasters.”
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