The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, contends that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) unlawfully eliminated its Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities (BRIC) program earlier this year, stepping on Congress’s powers.
The states say the impact of the shutdown has been “devastating.”
“Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding,” the complaint reads.
“Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars for planning, permitting, and environmental review are now threatened,” it continues.
Before the turn of the century, Congress and FEMA started implementing mitigation as a tactic against natural disasters, as opposed to reacting after crises.
The BRIC program, created in 2018 as an iteration of past programs, has helped avoid more than $150 billion in costs alongside other federal mitigation grants, the complaint says.
In April, the Trump administration shuttered the program, calling it “wasteful” and “politicized.” The Hill requested comment from FEMA.
Read more from The Hill's Ella Lee at TheHill.com.
