FEMA Offering $1B to Aid Disaster Mitigation Efforts

March 27, 2026

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently published a notice of funding opportunity for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 that makes $1 billion in federal funding available to states, local governments, territories, and tribal nations to help strengthen and protect infrastructure from potential disasters like fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. The application deadline is July 23.

[Above photo by FEMA]

FEMA noted that this funding – offered through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities or BRIC program, created during President Trump’s first term – features a “renewed focus” on infrastructure-related hazard mitigation projects while delegating more control to state and local leaders.

Photo by FEMA

The agency said this new BRIC funding opportunity is specifically designed to:

  • Prioritize infrastructure resilience by funding construction projects that are ready to adopt the latest hazard-resistant building codes.
  • Move money faster by eliminating phased projects, simplifying the National Competition scoring system and removing sub-application scoring by the National Review Panel. The National Competition aspect of the program reviews applications based on both technical and qualitative criteria such as risk reduction effectiveness, partnerships, and future conditions.
  • Shift responsibility and authority to states, territories and tribal nations by removing funding for hazard mitigation planning and non-financial direct technical assistance provisions. The program now maximizes state and local responsibility for resilience and risk reduction rather than federal investment in a wide range of activities.

“When done correctly, mitigation activities save lives and reduce the cost of future disasters,” said Karen Evans, the senior official performing the duties of the FEMA administrator, in a statement. “For this new funding opportunity, FEMA has reduced bureaucratic hurdles, focused funding on major infrastructure projects and shifted responsibilities to the states, reducing federal overreach. We are confident that this new and improved BRIC program will deliver results and make America safer.”

There are several tranches of federal funds available for the FY 2024-2025 cycle, FEMA noted:

  • $112 million for states and territories (up to $2 million federal cost share for each applicant).
  • $50 million tribal set-aside (up to $2 million federal cost share for each applicant).
  • $56 million for state or territory “Building Code Plus-Up” (up to $1 million federal cost share per applicant) and $25 million for tribal nation “Building Code Plus-Up” to carry out eligible building code adoption and enforcement activities.
  • $757 million for National Competition-scored infrastructure projects (up to $20 million federal cost share per sub-application).

FEMA stressed that no single applicant may receive more than 15 percent of the total available funding across all BRIC categories, which includes the combined total of all funding category requests.

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