The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it plans to relaunch a grant program that has provided billions in funding for climate resiliency projects that help communities prepare for floods, fires and other disasters. This comes nearly a year after FEMA canceled the program for the whole country, including $200 million in previously awarded grants for North Carolina.
BRIC is one of the primary ways that the federal government helps communities prepare against future weather disasters. The stalled program has left many infrastructure projects in North Carolina — such as sewer upgrades, river bank maintenance and wastewater projects — in limbo for the last year.
Ever since the federal government attempted to discontinue the program, the money has been at the heart of an extended legal fight. In December, the federal court ordered FEMA to pay out awarded grants, but FEMA ignored the order for months. Then North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, along with 19 other states, filed a motion to force FEMA to release the funds, which was also granted.
This week, the agency appeared to change course on its decision to shutter the program, stating it would “fully resume programmatic support for BRIC awards and sub applications, such as award monitoring and closeout, and completing pre-award review activities once the lapse in appropriations has ended.”
The agency added that “in the weeks and months ahead, FEMA will continue to reconstitute the BRIC program in a way that reflects good stewardship of taxpayer money—including by publishing a new funding opportunity.”
A spokesperson with the North Carolina Department of Justice said no money has surfaced yet.
“FEMA has represented in some public reporting that it will restart the BRIC program, but we haven’t seen this go into effect yet,” the office told BPR in an email.
The suspension of BRIC had widespread implications in Western North Carolina. One of the towns that is still waiting for its awarded funds is Hickory, which was supposed to receive millions of dollars to protect a wastewater treatment center from hazardous flooding. In Buncombe County, a study about flooding vulnerabilities is on hold. And in Hillsborough, a project that would relocate a water pump station out of a floodplain has stalled.
In a statement, FEMA said it remains “deeply committed” to resiliency projects. The agency also appeared to reverse course on its decision to end the program, attributing the long delay in paying out grants to a “methodical evaluation of the program” conducted by former Department of Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem.
Noem, who has received bipartisan criticism over her leadership, was fired earlier this month.
