The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday it would provide up to $1 billion in funding for disaster-resilient infrastructure under a grant program it had previously canceled and criticized as wasteful.
The move was prompted by an order issued earlier this month by a U.S. District Court, which in December authorized the Trump administration to resume the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.
FEMA launched a multibillion-dollar grant program during President Donald Trump’s first term to reduce the costs of future disasters. State, local and tribal governments can apply to fund a range of construction projects and have received funding in previous years for everything from flood levees to tornado safe rooms. When the program was canceled, progress on many projects stalled.
In April 2025, FEMA abruptly terminated BRIC and attempted to use funding for other priorities, a decision that a district court later ruled was illegal. When the agency failed to reopen the program within weeks, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns gave officials a clear timeline for issuing new funding opportunities and restarting communications about previously funded projects.
Wednesday’s announcement is the biggest sign yet that the agency is complying with the court’s rules. Previously, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had been confirmed by the Senate and sworn in. Mullin replaces Kristi Noemwho exercised Strictly control FEMA spending and presided over the firing of hundreds of disaster relief workers.
FEMA Acting Administrator Karen S. Evans signed a statement on BRIC’s return, which the agency said will help save lives. “For this new funding opportunity, FEMA reduces bureaucratic hurdles, focuses funding on major infrastructure projects, and shifts responsibility to states, reducing federal overreach,” Evans said in a statement.
Disaster experts celebrated the news. “For communities who have been waiting for this funding, this news means BRIC survives and mitigation is back,” said Carrie Speranza, former chair of FEMA’s National Advisory Committee.
Over the course of the program, FEMA has received more than $15.6 billion in job applications and agreed to fund more than $4.6 billion, or about 30 percent. BRIC countries provide funding at the request of the president and Congress.
Trump has at times advocated eliminating FEMA, but he is still awaiting final recommendations from a panel of experts he convened to recommend reforms to the agency. On Tuesday, Trump extended a deadline for a FEMA review committee for a second time, with a final report due on May 29, days before the Atlantic hurricane season begins.
FEMA has not been tested by a large-scale, multi-state disaster since Trump returned to the White House. The 2025 hurricane season passed without making landfall in the United States.
The upcoming season, which begins June 1, is expected to produce 11 to 16 tropical storms, which is close to the long-term average, according to commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc. Four to seven of those storms could become hurricanes.
Top photo: The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C., Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. A massive U.S. winter storm stretching from the southern Rockies to New England is stressing power systems, causing a series of travel disruptions and threatening large amounts of snow and ice in some of the country’s most densely populated corridors.
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