Court Orders FEMA to Unfreeze $750M in Disaster Mitigation Grants Within 21 Days
March 14, 2026 · 2 min read
Jared Klein
A federal judge has run out of patience with FEMA's refusal to release hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster preparedness funding.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns issued an enforcement order on March 6 giving the Federal Emergency Management Agency just 21 days to reopen applications under its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program and begin disbursing roughly $750 million in frozen grants. The ruling came after a coalition of 20 state attorneys general returned to court, arguing that FEMA had ignored a December 2025 injunction that declared the program's termination unlawful.
Why the Money Stopped Flowing
The Trump administration canceled BRIC in April 2025, calling it duplicative of other federal programs. The move froze grant allocations that had been approved under Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, leaving state and local governments holding project plans they could no longer fund. When 20 states sued in July 2025, the court sided with them — but FEMA still hadn't complied months later.
The March 6 order sets hard deadlines. Within 14 days, FEMA must identify every selected, phased, and pending BRIC project nationwide and provide states with a timeline for releasing existing project funding. Within 21 days, the agency must publish a new Notice of Funding Opportunity for Fiscal Year 2024 grants.
What's at Stake for Local Governments
BRIC grants fund infrastructure hardening, building code upgrades, flood mitigation, and climate resilience projects. Massachusetts alone has $90 million in pending FEMA funding, including a $320,000 corridor redesign in Rockport and a $50,250 drinking water protection project in Newburyport. North Carolina communities are waiting on $200 million in disaster mitigation awards.
The program has distributed over $5 billion since its creation, making it one of the largest pre-disaster mitigation funding streams available to municipalities.
What Grant Seekers Should Do Now
Local governments and nonprofits with pending BRIC applications should monitor Grants.gov for the new NOFO, which must appear by late March under the court's timeline. Organizations that had previously applied but saw their awards frozen should contact their state emergency management agency to confirm their project's status. New applicants should begin preparing hazard mitigation plans now — BRIC applications require significant documentation, and the window between NOFO publication and submission deadlines is typically tight. Tools like Granted can help organizations identify whether BRIC or other federal resilience programs match their project scope.