Twenty states objected to the end of the program, which aims to make communities more resilient to natural disasters.
Published December 11, 2025
A federal judge said President Donald Trump’s administration acted illegally by ending a program aimed at making communities more resilient to natural disasters.
The Trump administration targeted the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program as part of a broader effort to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
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But on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns ruled that the government did not have the authority to end the subsidy program. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by 20 states, the majority of which are led by Democrats.
Stearns said the administration’s actions amounted to “an unlawful violation of the executive branch’s prerogative to appropriate funds for specific and compelling purposes.”
“The BRICs program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” Stearns wrote, adding that “the imminence of disaster cannot be deterred by bureaucratic obstruction.”
Mr. Stearns previously blocked FEMA from diverting more than $4 billion allocated to BRICs for other purposes.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, one of the plaintiffs, praised the decision.
“Today’s court order will no doubt save lives by preventing the federal government from cutting off funding to help communities prepare for and mitigate the effects of natural disasters,” he said in a statement.
BRIC is the largest resiliency program offered by FEMA and is designed to reduce disaster-related risks and enhance rapid recovery efforts.
The program represents an effort under FEMA to take precautionary measures to prepare for natural disasters as climate change accelerates extreme weather events across the country.
Over the past four years, FEMA has approved about $4.5 billion in grants for about 2,000 projects, mostly in coastal states, according to the complaint.
Upon taking office for his second term, President Trump initially promised to abolish FEMA, but FEMA stood at a crossroads between the president’s climate change denialism and his pledge to eliminate federal waste.
President Trump has since softened his stance in the face of opposition from Republican and Democratic state legislators. He said he would instead reform the agency.
In November, FEMA Acting Administrator David Richardson resigned from his position. This came amid internal backlash over Richardson’s lack of experience and the agency’s layoffs.
About 200 FEMA employees warned in an August letter that job cuts risk worsening future disasters to catastrophic levels.
When he took on the role in May, Mr. Richardson threatened to “run him over in a heartbeat” to anyone who resisted changes to the agency.
