20 States Sue Trump Administration for Slashing FEMA Disaster Mitigation Program

A group of 20 states sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over the shutting down of a multibillion-dollar grant program with the purpose of strengthening natural disaster preparation and mitigation.

The lawsuit filed in a Boston federal court contends that the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) unlawfully eliminated its Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities (BRIC) program, overriding Congress.

The states said in the complaint that the shutdown’s impacts have been “devastating,” reported The Hill.

“Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding,” the complaint said. “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. And in the meantime, Americans across the country face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.”

Created in 2018, the BRIC program has helped avert over $150 billion in costs, along with other federal mitigation grants, according to the complaint. Congress and FEMA began using mitigation as a strategy to deal with natural disasters decades ago, rather than responding to crises after the fact.

^{A FEMA search and rescue team from Virginia Beach, Virginia trains at Camp Pendleton on the Southern California coast in Sand Diego County on March 24, 2015. Cotton Puryear / Virginia Guard Public Affairs}

Over the past four years, almost 2,000 projects were chosen by FEMA all over the country to receive roughly $4.5 billion in funding.

“For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on preparation, the program has protected property, saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs, reduced injuries, and saved lives,” a press release from Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said.

The Trump administration shut down the program in April, referring to it as “wasteful” and “politicized,” The Hill reported.

President Donald Trump indicated early in his second term that there would be a major overhaul of FEMA, possibly resulting in the disaster relief program being eliminated. But in the wake of the recent deadly Texas floods, the administration has said FEMA would be reformed rather than gotten rid of entirely.

^{A FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team from Los Angeles, California responds to the Houston, Texas area following Hurricane Harvey, on Aug. 31, 2017. LAFD Photo}

“This illegal cut endangers the communities most vulnerable to natural disasters,” Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said in a press release. “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.”

The lawsuit noted that neither the termination of BRIC nor a substantial reduction in the “functions and capabilities” of FEMA were authorized by Congress, reported The Hill.

“In fact, Congress has specifically barred it,” the complaint said. “Therefore, the BRIC termination violates these statutes and the Separation of Powers.”

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