Olympia – Washington Attorney General Nick Brown is leading a coalition of 20 states in suing the Trump administration over its decision to terminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program—a move Brown and other leaders say is both illegal and dangerous.
According to Brown, the sudden end of the BRIC program threatens the safety of communities across the country by stripping them of critical resources intended to protect against natural disasters. The program, in place for over 30 years, provided funding to help communities fortify infrastructure, reduce post-disaster recovery costs, and save lives. By cutting the program, the administration forces states and municipalities to delay, downsize, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects—many of which have been years in the making and represent millions of dollars in local investment.
“This illegal cut endangers the communities most vulnerable to natural disasters,” Brown said. “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, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, alleges that the termination of the BRIC program violates federal law, including Congressional mandates that require FEMA to prioritize disaster mitigation. The complaint also claims the move breaches the separation of powers by overriding Congressional funding authority, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and unlawfully delegates authority to Cameron Hamilton—who directed the program’s termination without Senate confirmation as FEMA administrator.
Responding to disasters like Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed laws tasking FEMA with four key responsibilities: mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The BRIC program is central to FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation mission. Studies have shown that every dollar FEMA invests in mitigation saves six dollars in post-disaster recovery costs.
The program funds projects that are often difficult for local governments to finance independently—such as floodwalls, evacuation shelters, wildfire-proofing utility grids, and strengthening critical infrastructure like bridges and water systems.
Over the past four years, FEMA approved nearly 2,000 BRIC projects, totaling about $4.5 billion nationwide. In Washington state, 27 active BRIC projects account for $182 million in funding. Nearly three-quarters of this funding supports projects in small towns and rural areas, including levee construction in Aberdeen and Hoquiam and emergency power generation projects in Klickitat County aimed at protecting hospitals and schools during wildfires and severe weather.
The lawsuit contends that FEMA’s abrupt cancellation of the BRIC program undermines years of bipartisan work designed to reduce disaster risk nationwide. The coalition of attorneys general argues that the executive branch cannot refuse to spend funds specifically appropriated by Congress and that FEMA’s action violates both statutory mandates and constitutional principles.
With this legal action, the states are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the administration from reallocating BRIC funds for other purposes. They are also asking the court for a permanent injunction that would reverse the program’s termination and restore the funds for their intended use.
Joining Washington in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
