Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today secured a court order requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to promptly take steps necessary to reverse the termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program (BRIC) and restore billions in funding to communities that rely on it. The decision follows a motion filed by Raoul and a coalition of states to compel FEMA to comply with a previous order issued by the court in December. 

“I’m pleased with the court’s decision directing the administration to abide by the court’s order and restore this vital program to prepare for disasters and protect our communities,” Raoul said. “Congress appropriated funding to the BRIC program because of the important role it plays in protecting property, reducing injuries and saving lives before natural disasters strike. Our coalition filed a lawsuit because the Trump administration’s attempt to end the program was unlawful, and the court agreed. The separation of powers and the rule of law still matter in our democracy.”

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 injuries, protected property and saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs. BRIC projects are required to be cost-effective, and a recent study concluded that every $1 FEMA spends on mitigation saves an average of $6 in post-disaster costs.  

In July 2025, Raoul and a coalition of attorneys general filed a lawsuit to prevent FEMA from terminating its BRIC program – an action which had already delayed, scaled back and canceled hundreds of mitigation projects dependent on this funding across the country. In December 2025, the attorneys general 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. 

Last month, the coalition filed a motion asking the District of Massachusetts to enforce its December order, as the Trump dministration had offered no indication that it had complied with the order at that point. Today, the court sided with the coalition and granted its requested relief. The order requires FEMA to make pre-disaster mitigation funds available as required by statute, communicate the status of current BRIC projects to the states, and file status reports with the court outlining any actions taken or planned to comply with the order. The order also requires FEMA to issue a fiscal year 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the BRIC program within 21 days. 

The BRIC program supports often difficult-to-fund projects, such as constructing evacuation shelters and flood walls, safeguarding utility grids against natural disasters, protecting wastewater and drinking water infrastructure and fortifying bridges, roadways and culverts. Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. 

In Illinois, BRIC money is used to fund numerous disaster mitigation projects, including two projects that aim to protect critical infrastructure and communities from flooding. FEMA approved a BRIC grant to relocate a vulnerable wastewater treatment plant out of a FEMA recognized floodway, a project that aims to safeguard drinking water, prevent raw sewage backup, and prevent the contamination of waterways for DePue, Peoria, Hennepin and Pekin, Illinois. Another project was awarded BRIC funding to reduce the risk of flooding in the Des Plaines River Valley, where residents are frequently forced to evacuate to escape severe flooding, which has caused over $35 million in damage to the community.       

Joining Raoul in securing the order are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.