Washington state sues Trump administration for unlawfully cutting billions in disaster mitigation funding

SEATTLE — Attorney General Nick Brown today led a coalition of 20 states in suing the Trump administration over its decision to illegally shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) bipartisan Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, designed to protect communities from natural disasters before they strike.  

For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify against natural disasters. By focusing on preparation, the program has protected property, saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs, reduced injuries, and saved lives. 

The impact of the BRIC program’s termination has been devastating, with communities across the country being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding. Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars are now threatened. And now, Americans from coast to coast face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.

“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.”

Responding to the catastrophic losses resulting from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Congress passed a law stating FEMA must protect communities through four interrelated functions — mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The BRIC program is the core of FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation efforts. A recent study concluded that every dollar FEMA spends on mitigation saves an average of six dollars in post-disaster costs. 

The BRIC program supports often difficult-to-fund projects, such as constructing evacuation shelters and floodwalls, safeguarding utility grids against wildfires, protecting wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, and fortifying bridges, roadways, and culverts. 

Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. In Washington state, there are 27 open BRIC projects that total $182 million and nearly three quarters of that funding goes to small towns and rural communities. This money funds projects like 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 and severe weather.

The coalition of attorneys general argue that FEMA’s decision to abruptly terminate the BRIC program is in direct violation of Congress’s decision to fund it. The executive branch has no lawful authority to unilaterally refuse to spend funds appropriated by Congress. They also assert that shutting down the BRIC program violates Separation of Powers and the Administrative Procedure Act, and violates the Appointments Clause because Cameron Hamilton, who acted as FEMA Administrator and gave the directive to terminate the BRIC program, was never appointed by the President or confirmed by the Senate and therefore was acting as an administrator unlawfully. 

With this lawsuit, the coalition of attorneys general are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump administration from spending BRIC funds for 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.  

Joining Washington state in filing this lawsuit, are 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 the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The complaint can be found here.

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