Previously cut federal funding for community emergency management projects around New Jersey may be back on the table thanks to a new court order, but local leaders remain skeptical that the money will come through.
A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from scrapping the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which is designed to assist local governments to pay for critical projects that will help them weather future disasters.
The decision is the latest twist in a case that began in April, when FEMA moved to shutter the BRIC program. That program, which was created in 2018 through a law President Donald Trump signed in his first term, has awarded roughly $4.5 billion for disaster mitigation projects nationwide in the years since. That includes more than $180 million for 35 projects around New Jersey.
FEMA’s move to end the BRIC program left several projects in the Garden State in lurch, from a $20 million effort to protect a sewage treatment plant in Ocean City to a $12 million plan for flood control improvements in Highlands.
National response
New Jersey was part of a coalition of 20 states, plus the District of Columbia and the Governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, who had sued in July to block FEMA from dismantling the BRIC program.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns ruled the Trump administration’s move to end the BRIC program violated federal law and would seriously harm the state’s interests.
“There is an inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law, and the potential hardship accruing to the States in the absence of an injunction is great,” Stearns wrote in his decision on Dec. 16. “The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives. It need not be gainsaid that the imminence of disasters is not deterred by bureaucratic obstruction.”
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin praised the ruling.
“FEMA tried to slash vital federal funding that would help our state prepare for and respond to natural disasters,” Platkin said in a statement. “The Trump Administration’s attempts to play politics with disaster response put New Jerseyans in harm’s way. This decision blocking FEMA’s unlawful action is a win for all New Jerseyans.”
It is unclear if the Trump administration will appeal the decision.
“DHS has not terminated BRIC. Any suggestion to the contrary is a lie,” a FEMA spokesperson, who declined to give a name or title, said in a statement. “The Biden Administration abandoned true mitigation and used BRIC as a green new deal slush fund. It’s unfortunate that an activist judge either didn’t understand that or didn’t care.”
FEMA’s comments in response to the ruling appear to contradict a statement the agency previously gave to NJ Spotlight News when asked about the BRIC program being cancelled.
“Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, we are ending non-mission critical programs. BRIC was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement in April.
‘The front line’
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th) applauded the decision and stressed that the future of the BRIC program is in Congress’s hands.
“Our state is on the front line every hurricane season, and we know that every dollar invested in disaster preparedness saves property and lives,” Pallone said in a statement. “Trump is hellbent on abolishing FEMA and illegally gutting vital disaster assistance programs, and this lawsuit confirms that the power to legislate lies with Congress — and not a power-hungry president.”
It remains unclear whether FEMA will pay out previously awarded funding. The ruling by Stearns only orders FEMA to keep the BRIC program in place.
“The States do not ask the court to compel the agency to award any specific grants, nor do they ask the court to enjoin the agency from replacing the BRIC program in the future with a different mitigation program. Nor do they seek to prevent the Secretary of Homeland Security, as the overseeing executive of FEMA, from recommending to Congress that the BRIC program be abolished,” Stearns wrote.
That uncertainty has left grantees stuck. Highlands Mayor Carolyn Broullon told NJ Spotlight News her borough is still exploring alternative funding options and considering which parts of their flood control project to prioritize if they are forced to do the work in a piecemeal fashion.
Broullon said she’s “cautiously optimistic” that the BRIC grant funds will eventually come to Highlands. Still, she said the federal grant is the project’s anchor and that additional state funding can’t be awarded without the federal money in place.
“I don’t want anyone to be alarmed,” Broullon said. “I just want people to be cognizant that there are many, many layers to this. It’s literally peeling the onion, where all of these things have to happen in a certain manner.”
Highlands has yet to receive any money from FEMA for the flood control project.
