A federal court has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to restore billions of dollars in disaster mitigation funding following a lawsuit brought by a coalition of 23 states, including Michigan.
The order requires FEMA to take steps to reverse the termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, commonly known as BRIC, which the Trump administration had moved to end.
“For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. “Disaster mitigation funding is critical to protecting our communities and saving lives.”
The coalition first sued in July 2025 after FEMA terminated the program, a move states said delayed, scaled back, or canceled hundreds of mitigation projects across the country.
A federal court ruled in favor of the states on Dec. 11, declaring the termination unlawful and ordering FEMA to reverse it. Months later, the administration had still not restored the funding, leading the coalition to file another motion in February asking the court to enforce the ruling.
Last week, the court granted that request.
The latest order requires FEMA to make pre-disaster mitigation funds available as required by statute, communicate the status of current BRIC projects to states and submit status reports to the court outlining any actions taken to comply.
The agency must also issue a fiscal year 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the program within 21 days.
“I hope this order will compel this administration to finally make these funds available,” she added. “If it does not, my office will continue fighting to ensure Michiganders receive the services and support they are owed.”
Nationwide, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding over the past four years. In Michigan, 24 projects have been selected totaling more than $29 million in federal funding.
The case is just one of many disputes between Nessel and the Trump administration over federal disaster funding.
As previously reported by The Center Square, Nessel has led or joined several lawsuits challenging changes to long-standing FEMA grant programs. In one case, Michigan successfully secured the release of roughly $100 million in FEMA grant reimbursements to the Michigan State Police.
Nessel has argued that recent federal policy changes have undermined disaster preparedness and shifted more responsibility for disaster response onto states.
“The Trump Administration should be working with states to keep our residents safe,” Nessel said in a previous lawsuit over FEMA grant conditions. “Instead, the White House continues again and again to pull the rug out from under us, putting the safety of our communities in jeopardy.”
While federal storm aid was often viewed as routine under previous administrations, the Trump administration has sought to prioritize federal assistance for only the most catastrophic disasters.
“The federal government focuses its support on truly catastrophic disasters-massive hurricanes, devastating earthquakes, or wide-scale attacks on the homeland,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, in comments on the policy shift made last May.
Michigan was joined in the BRIC case by Democrat attorneys general from 20 states, the District of Columbia, and the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
