FEMA Eliminating Important BRIC Grants
4/5/2025 – On 4/4/25, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the termination of BRIC grants.
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program encouraged better building practices. The grants also funded mitigation projects that reduced future flood damage.
Through its project scoring matrix, BRIC grants incentivized the adoption of building codes that strengthened infrastructure and buildings against natural disasters. The codes address issues, such as elevation above floodplains and types of foundations, that help improve safety and prevent future damage.
Program Linked to Building Codes that Reduced Future Damage
To maximize a project’s “score” during competitive evaluation, states had to adopt, at a minimum, the International Building Code (IBC) and International Residential Code (IRC) as published by the International Code Council (ICC). ICC updates the codes annually.
According to Alan Black, vice president of Quiddity Engineering in Houston, “BRIC applications receive 20 points (out of a possible 100) if the State has adopted the 2018 version (or later) of both IBC and IRC.”
However, Black also points out that Texas currently only mandates the 2012 codes as a minimum, even though municipalities may adopt higher standards. The 2012 code put many Texas applications at a competitive disadvantage.
Black says, “Unincorporated areas by state law are prohibited from adopting their own building codes, and as such, applications from these areas receive 0 out of 20 points.”
Positive Payback for Higher Building Codes
Regardless, encouraging adoption of higher building standards in densely populated flood-prone areas is positive.
John Blount, a former Harris County Engineer, studied how areas in Harris County that had and hadn’t adopted a 2009 building code update handled Hurricane Harvey.
The study found 20 times less damage in subdivisions using the newer, more stringent building codes.
Even more impressive, Blount found that not one home built to the higher standards suffered substantial damage during Harvey.
A national study published by FEMA in 2020 demonstrated the value of adopting hazard-resistant building codes. They can provide an 11-to-1 return by reducing losses and helping communities get back on their feet faster after disasters.
That’s right. Every $1 spent on mitigation in new-building-code construction saves $11 in disaster repair and recovery costs.
Black, also a former acting director of Harris County Flood Control, said that 11:1 sounded a bit high in his experience. He used a rule of thumb of 4:1 for this area.
Easily Correctable Rules May Have Doomed Entire Program
Regardless, yesterday, Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security (FEMA’s parent department), announced she was “eliminating the wasteful, politicized grant program” started during President Trump’s first term.
A FEMA spokesperson said, “The BRIC Program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
Noem is canceling all BRIC applications from 2020 to 2023 and clawing back any unspent money, according to her press release. It said, “Approximately $882 million of funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be returned to the U.S. Treasury or reapportioned by Congress in the next fiscal year.”
Noem said she is doing this to “return FEMA to its core mission of helping Americans recover from natural disasters.”
An analogy: It feels as if she would rather reconstruct a plane after it crashed than help land it safely.
Third-party press reports shed a bit more light. Grist reported a FEMA spokesperson as saying that FEMA “was more concerned with climate change than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.” Grist also pointed out that BRIC generally shouldered 75 percent of the cost of a given resilience project, and up to 90 percent of the cost of projects in disadvantaged communities.
Scientific American reported that “President Joe Biden ordered the program to address climate change and spend 40 percent of its grant money on projects that help communities with high rates of poverty, unemployment and environmental exposure.”
“The program’s emphasis on equity is what may have marked it for demolition,” concluded Grist.
Local Impact
The cancellation of BRIC grants will reportedly crush projects underway, but not yet completed. FEMA says it is clawing back all unspent money, even if a project has already started.
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released a report yesterday detailing how much each state would be affected by the loss of BRIC funding. Texas will lose $510,667,172, second only to California.
A FEMA spreadsheet shows that Harris County and the Harris County Flood Control District had applied for 10 BRIC grants:
| Forest Shadows Subdivision Flood Mitigation BRIC |
| Bear Creek Village Subdivision Flood Mitigation BRIC |
| Project Scoping for Cypress Creek Watershed Study – Harris County Flood Control District, TX |
| Harris County TX Greens Bayou Mid-Reach Channel Conveyance Improvements – Segment 1 FY2022 BRIC |
| BRIC 2020 Buyout |
| Project Scoping for Cole Creek Stormwater Detention Basin Preliminary Engineering Report “ HCFCD, TX |
| South Post Oak Detention Basin C547-00-00 & Channel Improvement C147-00-00 in Harris Co, TX BRIC |
| Little Cedar Bayou Flood Risk Reduction Project Scoping – Harris County Flood Control District, TX |
| Cloverleaf Area Drainage Improvements – Phase 2 – Harris County Flood Control District, TX |
| Cypress Trace Stormwater Detention Basin C&CB Project Scoping“ Harris County Flood Control District |
It’s not immediately clear how the BRIC decision will affect the fate of those projects. FEMA may have rejected some projects previously. And some, if cancelled, may have alternative sources of funding available.
Editorial Comment
If Noem felt BRIC did not meet the Administration’s objectives, it seems she could have easily modified the program rather than killing it.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/5/25
2776 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
