Twenty US States are suing FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) due to the cancellation of a program that help states prepare for natural disasters.
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) fund was cancelled by the Trump Administration in April. As described in this article, the federal lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts, alleges that ending the program was illegal as it was made when FEMA was under the leadership of an acting administrator and that the Trump administration “violated the constitutional separation of powers because Congress had not authorized the program’s demise.”
Funding helped with infrastructure improvements to help communities be better prepared for floods, earthquakes and forest fires among other disasters. Eliminating this federal funding support will put the responsibility on the individual states and the program could be eliminated as early as December of this year.
Watch this space for updates!