Attorney General Tong Secures Court Victory Preventing Trump Administration From Unlawfully Cutting Billions in Disaster Preparedness Funding

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12/11/2025

Attorney General Tong Secures Court Victory Preventing Trump Administration From Unlawfully Cutting Billions in Disaster Preparedness Funding

Court Order Prevents Trump Administration from Illegally Shutting Down the FEMA BRIC Program

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong and a coalition of 20 states today won a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its unlawful attempt to 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 their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on preparation, the program has protected lives, communities, and property — more efficiently spending money to mitigate disasters, rather than just recovering from them.

“Donald Trump tried to unilaterally dismantle and defund our government’s ability to prevent and prepare for natural disasters. We sued, and once again, we won,” said Attorney General Tong. “Refusing to prepare for a disaster does not stop nature, does not save lives, and does not save money. This was yet another attempt by Donald Trump to hijack our tax dollars for ballrooms and billionaire tax breaks, and we’re not going to let him get away with it.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed a law mandating that FEMA must protect communities through four interrelated functions – mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The BRIC program is the core of FEMA’s mitigation efforts. BRIC projects are required to be cost-effective, and 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 flood walls, 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. 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 imperiled not just the funding that had been awarded and now cancelled, but future awards that Connecticut expects to receive. Total cancelled funds in Connecticut had been 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 included $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 was $25 million for the ongoing New Haven Inland and Coastal Resiliency Project to address flooding, among other critical efforts.

Today’s court decision affirms the coalition’s position that FEMA’s decision to abruptly terminate the BRIC program is in direct violation of Congress’s decision to fund it, and that the Executive Branch has no lawful authority to unilaterally refuse to spend funds appropriated by Congress. The judge also concluded that FEMA’s actions violate Separation of Powers and the Administrative Procedures Act.

The decision prevents FEMA from terminating the BRIC program and requires the restoration of these critical funds to the communities relying on them.

Joining Attorney General Tong in filing this lawsuit, which was co-led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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