Posted on 07/18/25
| News Source: Maryland Matters
Washington, D.C. - July 18, 2025 - Maryland joined 19 other states this week in a lawsuit aimed at reversing the Trump administration’s termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, a key disaster mitigation program.
The program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, funds state, tribal and local government projects that help fortify people and property against natural disasters, funding things like flood barriers, building reinforcements, wastewater infrastructure improvements or hardened electric grids. The funds can also be used to prepare emergency plans or identify hazards within communities.
FEMA typically covers up to 75% of a project’s cost, although smaller, rural communities can receive up to 90%.
The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said the “wildly successful” program, operating under different names over several decades, has helped communities avoid $150 billion in disaster-related costs. But, in what the states called an illegal move, the administration suspended the BRIC program in April as part of a larger strategy to do away with FEMA.
“BRIC funding was intended to pay for critical flood protection projects in Crisfield and South Baltimore and is now in jeopardy because of the Trump administration’s funding cuts,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement announcing the suit. “With the deadly flooding we’ve recently seen in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Texas, this is the worst possible time to cut life-saving disaster preparedness funding.”