20 states sue DHS, FEMA for cuts to disaster mitigation program

CBS News

6 days ago

A group of 20 states sued the Trump administration on Wednesday seeking to block what they say was an illegal termination of a program that provided federal funding for natural disaster mitigation projects.
"By unilaterally shutting down FEMA's flagship pre-disaster mitigation program, Defendants have acted unlawfully and violated core separation of power principles," the lawsuit alleges, arguing that the executive branch doesn't have the authority to shut down the program funded by Congress.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, targets Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator David Richardson for their role in shutting down FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, also known as BRIC, program earlier this year. The lawsuit argues the power to make such a decision falls to Congress.
Before it was halted in April, the BRIC program helped fund local infrastructure projects like stormwater control systems and relocating or elevating buildings in flood-prone areas.
"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," the lawsuit states. "And in the meantime, Americans across the country face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters."
A CBS News investigation last month revealed that the recent BRIC funding cuts have disproportionately affected counties that supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election. Two-thirds of the counties losing funding voted for Mr. Trump. The elimination of the BRIC program will especially deprive vulnerable communities across the Southeast, the CBS News data analysis found.
The lawsuit calls the impact of the BRIC program's shutdown "devastating" and says it will force communities across the country to delay, scale back or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects because of their inability to access their already-approved federal dollars.
Alongside the lawsuit, the states also filed a request for a preliminary injunction asking the court to temporarily block the federal government from reallocating FEMA funds designated for disaster preparedness, arguing states will suffer irreversible damage if the funds are spent before the court rules.
In an April press release announcing the cuts, which has since been removed from the FEMA website, the disaster response agency said the BRIC program was "wasteful" and had become more concerned with "political agendas than helping Americans recover from natural disasters."
The multibillion-dollar BRIC program was established in 2018 under the first Trump administration.
FEMA and DHS did not immediately return a request for comment about the lawsuit.
The states suing are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Most have Democratic state leadership and have filed other lawsuits challenging Trump administration actions. North Carolina was ravaged by mudslides and flash flooding last fall after Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September.
The lawsuit comes as FEMA in recent weeks has faced scrutiny about its response to floods in Texas that killed more than 130 people, including at least 37 children. It also comes just days after heavy rains and flooding inundated communities in states ranging from New York and New Jersey to New Mexico.