Judge Blocks FEMA From Ending Disaster Program

Nearly $1 billion slated to support projects in Chesapeake Bay states

A federal judge ruled Dec. 11 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot unilaterally terminate a program that provides billions of dollars in disaster-preparation aid to communities nationwide.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration moved to claw back that funding, including nearly $1 billion approved in the Chesapeake Bay region alone, calling the program “wasteful and ineffective.”

Among the grants impacted in the Bay region were $36 million to fight rising water in Crisfield, MD; $32 million to restore wetlands along the Patapsco River’s Middle Branch near Baltimore; $2.7 million to acquire 21 flood-prone properties in Scranton, PA; and $20 million toward finishing a floodwall in the District of Columbia around the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In his 19-page ruling, Judge Richard Stearns of Massachusetts, a Clinton appointee, called the funding cancellation “unlawful,” citing earlier legislation requiring each state to receive minimum amounts of federal mitigation funding each year.

“This is a case about unlawful executive encroachment on the prerogative of Congress to appropriate funds for a specific and compelling purpose, and no more than that,” Stearns wrote.

The lawsuit was filed in July by a coalition of 20 states. In the Chesapeake region, the group included the attorneys general from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New York as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.

The case centers on FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which was launched during Trump’s first administration to help communities prevent an array of disasters, ranging from wildfires to floods.

The funding remains up in the air, though. Stearns’ ruling blocks the administration from redistributing the promised money. But it doesn’t release any of the previously withheld grants, nor does it stop FEMA from replacing BRIC with a different mitigation program.

An unnamed FEMA spokesperson said in a statement that BRIC has not been terminated and criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the funding.

“The Biden administration abandoned true mitigation and used BRIC as a green new deal slush fund,” the spokesperson said. “It’s unfortunate that an activist judge either didn’t understand that or didn’t care.”