ABERDEEN, Wash. — Washington is among 20 Democratic-led states suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), challenging the elimination of a long-running grant program that helps communities guard against damage from natural disasters.
The lawsuit contends President Donald Trump's administration acted illegally when it announced in April that it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. FEMA canceled some projects already in the works and refused to approve new ones despite funding from Congress.
“This illegal cut endangers the communities most vulnerable to natural disasters,” Washington state Attorney General Nick 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.”
FEMA did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment. It said in April that the program was “wasteful and ineffective” and “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
The program, established by a 2000 law, provides grants for a variety of disaster mitigation efforts.
In Washington state, there are 27 open BRIC projects totaling $182 million. Nearly three quarters of that funding is for small towns and rural communities, funding projects such as constructing levees and floodwalls in Aberdeen and Hoquiam and generating electricity in Klickitat County for hospitals and school districts — if the power goes out during wildfires or severe weather, according to Brown's office.
Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay and Aberdeen City Administrator Ruch Clemens told KING 5 they hope the federal government reinstate the grant funding.
"Aberdeen and Hoquiam have spent years piecing these projects together, so having these levees would not only protect our citizens, it would also increase our cities' abilities to further contribute to the state and national economies," Clemens said in a prepared statement. "We understand the effort to cut needless red tape and onerous federal processes that inhibit critical projects like the levees, and we also believe there is a balance that should be met to ensure that projects like these that are designed to protect communities are completed. These projects will not only save hardworking taxpayers money, but they will protect our communities from persistent flooding that has troubled our cities for far too long."
During his first term, Trump signed a law shoring up funding for disaster risk reduction efforts. The program then got a $1 billion boost from an infrastructure law signed by former President Joe Biden. That law requires FEMA to make available at least $200 million annually for disaster mitigation grants for the 2022-2026 fiscal years, the lawsuit says.
The suit contends the Trump administration violated the constitutional separation of powers because Congress had not authorized the program’s demise. It also alleges the program's termination was illegal because the decision was made while FEMA was under the leadership of an acting administrator who had not met the requirements to be in charge of the agency.
The lawsuit says communities in every state have benefited from federal disaster mitigation grants, which saved lives and spared homes, businesses, hospitals and schools from costly damage.
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