Attorney General Clark Asks Court to Enforce Order Preventing Trump Administration From Unlawfully Cutting Billions in Disaster Preparedness Funding

Motion Asks Court to Require FEMA to Restore Critical Disaster Resilience Program and Make Billions in Funding Available to the Communities Relying on Them

Attorney General Clark and a coalition of 23 states today filed a motion asking the District Court of Massachusetts to enforce its December 11, 2025 order that prohibited the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from terminating the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program (BRIC) and directed the agency to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination.

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 mitigation and community resilience, the program has saved lives, reduced injury, protected property, and saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs.

On July 16, 2025, Attorney General Clark and the coalition filed a lawsuit to prevent FEMA from terminating its BRIC program - an action which had already delayed, scaled back, and cancelled hundreds of mitigation projects across the country depending on this funding. On December 11, 2025, the coalition won their case . The court declared the termination of this congressionally mandated program unlawful and ordered FEMA to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination.

Over two months have passed and the federal government has offered no indication that they have complied with the court order. FEMA's regional offices lack information about whether and when it will resume the BRIC program, and some have indicated that FEMA is taking a "wait and see" approach-contrary to the clear terms of the court's order. During this time, the federal government has not identified any concrete steps that it has taken to reverse the BRIC termination.

Attorney General Clark and the coalition are asking the court to enforce the December 11 order by requiring the federal government to make pre-disaster mitigation funds available as required by statute, communicate the status and next steps for current BRIC projects to the states, communicate the reversal of the BRIC termination to all relevant stakeholders, and file status reports with the court outlining any actions taken or planned to comply with the order.

Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. In Vermont, BRIC funding is primarily used to plan and design infrastructure projects to reduce risks of natural disasters, including floods. For example, a Lower Whetstone Brook Project Scoping Study in Brattleboro, totaling $127,760 of federal funds, has now been cancelled. This project would have assessed floodplain restoration opportunities in a stretch of river to significantly reduce flood levels during high-flow storm events in a heavily populated downtown area.

Joining Attorney General Clarkin filing this motion are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Washington, and the governors of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

A copy of the motion is available on our website.

CONTACT: Amelia Vath, Senior Advisor to the Attorney General, 802-828-3171