The Balance of Power

Cutting Disaster Funding

Press Release:

AG Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion for Unlaw­ful­ly Cut­ting Bil­lions in Dis­as­ter Mit­i­ga­tion Fund­ing

Preceding Event:

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion shut down a pro­gram oper­at­ed by the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (FEMA). The agency, the Build­ing Resilient Infra­struc­ture and Com­mu­ni­ties (BRIC) pro­gram, served the pur­pose of pro­vid­ing fund­ing to com­mu­ni­ties to pre­pare for nat­ur­al dis­as­ters in advance. The BRIC pro­gram often aids in fund­ing very dif­fi­cult and expen­sive projects like evac­u­a­tion cen­ters, pro­tect­ing drink­ing water infra­struc­ture, and for­ti­fy­ing bridges, road­ways and cul­verts. Accord­ing to the press release, “Over the past four years, FEMA has select­ed near­ly 2,000 projects to receive rough­ly $4.5 bil­lion in BRIC fund­ing nation­wide.”

General Overview:

Accord­ing to the press release from July 16, 2025, “With this law­suit, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong and the coali­tion are seek­ing a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion to pre­vent the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion from spend­ing BRIC funds on oth­er pur­pos­es and a per­ma­nent injunc­tion to reverse the ter­mi­na­tion of the BRIC pro­gram and require the restora­tion of these crit­i­cal funds to the com­mu­ni­ties rely­ing on them.” This law­suit aims to ensure that fund­ing allo­cat­ed to the pro­gram makes it there to help com­mu­ni­ties pre­pare for nat­ur­al dis­as­ters.

They argue that the pres­i­dent is unable to stop or alter fund­ing appro­pri­at­ed by Con­gress and that the action vio­lates the Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ce­dures Act. Addi­tion­al­ly, the suit argues that nei­ther the head of the pro­gram nor the leader of FEMA were law­ful­ly appoint­ed, there­fore there is no author­i­ty present with­in the exec­u­tive branch to shut down the pro­gram.

Connecticut Nexus:

Accord­ing to the press release from July 16, 2025, “Con­necti­cut has received tens of mil­lions of dol­lars in FEMA-BRIC fund­ing since 2020 alone to address flood­ing risks and storm surge haz­ards, and more. The can­cel­la­tion of the BRIC pro­gram imper­ils not just the fund­ing that had been award­ed and now can­celled, but future awards that Con­necti­cut would have expect­ed to receive.

Total can­celled funds in Con­necti­cut are esti­mat­ed to exceed $84 mil­lion, includ­ing $42 mil­lion for the Resilient Bridge­port Coastal Flood Defense Sys­tem to address recur­rent flood­ing and coastal storm surges affect­ing the city of Bridgeport’s South End, which has been repeat­ed­ly impact­ed by major storm events. Also can­celled includes $900,000 in funds for the ongo­ing City of Stam­ford Sea­wall Improve­ment Project. The exist­ing sea­wall is oper­at­ing beyond its use­ful life and threat­ens waste­water infra­struc­ture, prop­er­ties and lives. Also impact­ed is $25 mil­lion for the ongo­ing New Haven Inland and Coastal Resilien­cy Project to address flood­ing, among oth­er crit­i­cal efforts.”

Date of filing:

July 16, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-12006

Case title:

State of Wash­ing­ton et al v. Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment et al

Plaintiffs: 20 states

Defendants:

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

OPEN
Last fil­ing: Nov. 20, 2025

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