New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin today joined a coalition of 20 states in suing the Trump Administration over its decision to illegally shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) bipartisan Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, designed to protect communities from natural disasters before they strike.
For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on preparation, the program has protected property, saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs, reduced injuries, and saved lives.
“New Jersey has repeatedly been hit by natural disasters including Sandy and Ida, which devastated our state with major loss of life and property,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Now the Trump Administration is attempting to illegally shut down BRIC, making it much harder for communities across our state to protect themselves against future extreme weather events and putting lives at risk. This decision is callous, abrupt, and an unlawful termination of a critical Congressionally-authorized program. To protect New Jerseyans, we are suing the Trump Administration to stop the termination of this program.”
“The threats of climate change, as we have seen in devastating flooding across the country and in New Jersey as recently as this week, are very real and are only going to get worse,” said New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette. “Funding from the BRIC program supports critical initiatives that enhance resilience and protect lives and property. We stand united with our fellow states who appreciate the urgency of taking action on climate change and are resolved to fight for restoration of this critical federal program.”
Responding to the catastrophic losses resulting from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Congress passed a law stating FEMA must protect communities through four interrelated functions—mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The BRIC program is the core of FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation efforts. A recent study concluded that every dollar FEMA spends on mitigation saves an average of six dollars in post-disaster costs.
The BRIC program supports often difficult-to-fund projects, such as constructing evacuation shelters and flood walls, safeguarding utility grids against wildfires, protecting wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, and fortifying bridges, roadways, and culverts.
The impact of the BRIC program’s termination has been devastating, with communities across the country being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding. Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars are now threatened. And now, Americans from coast to coast face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.
Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. In New Jersey, BRIC funding is used to fund projects such as mitigating flooding in the Meadowlands; constructing floodwalls in Jersey City, Weehawken, and Hoboken; floodproofing the water and fire pump station at Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, and more.
Attorney General Platkin and the coalition argue that FEMA’s decision to abruptly terminate the BRIC program is in direct violation of Congress’s decision to fund it. The Executive Branch has no lawful authority to unilaterally refuse to spend funds appropriated by Congress. They also assert that shutting down the BRIC program violates Separation of Powers and the Administrative Procedures Act, and violates the Appointments Clause because Cameron Hamilton, who acted as FEMA Administrator and gave the directive to terminate the BRIC program, was never appointed by the President or confirmed by the Senate and therefore was acting as Administrator unlawfully.
With this lawsuit, Attorney General Platkin and the coalition are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump Administration from spending BRIC funds on other purposes and a permanent injunction to reverse the termination of the BRIC program and require the restoration of these critical funds to the communities relying on them.
Joining Attorney General Platkin in filing this lawsuit are attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
