Trump Cuts Off Disaster Relief, NJ Sues

As the Garden State reels from the deadly flash flooding and severe weather that destroyed homes, cars and streets, the New Jersey Attorney General is joining 19 other states suing President Donald Trump’s administration for shutting down a natural disaster mitigation program.

According to the Office of the Attorney General for New Jersey, the Trump administration illegally closed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) bipartisan Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. The initiative, beginning in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, started from a law that Congress passed in order to ensure that FEMA protects communities during four stages of a disaster: mitigation, preparation, response and recovery.

The BRIC is responsible for operations like building evacuation shelters and flood walls, safeguarding utility grids against fires and securing wastewater and drinking water infrastructure. The program also fortifies bridges, roadways and culverts.

In New Jersey, efforts to mitigate flood damage in the Meadowlands, building floodwalls in Jersey City, Weehawken and Hoboken, and floodproofing the water fire pump system at Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal were all funded using BRIC dollars.

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In April, FEMA said they would be ending the BRIC program after it amounted to "waste, fraud and abuse." Applications to the program between 2020 and 2023 were all to be canceled, and money that was awarded as part of those grants that was not already distributed would be returned immediately to the federal government.

“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,” the agency said in a statement. The program began in 2018 under President Trump's first term, and was expanded later by President Joe Biden.

“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," says Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. "This decision is callous, abrupt, and an unlawful termination of a critical Congressionally-authorized program."

According to Attorney General Platkin's office, every dollar spent by FEMA to mitigate the damage done by natural disasters equates to an average of six dollars saved in post-disaster costs.

President Trump now believes the program is being used as a party ploy that recklessly uses government funding, calling it "wasteful" and "politicized," according to The Hill. The second Trump term began with the idea that like other federal government organizations, FEMA would see a major overhaul. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has called on FEMA to be eliminated all together, in favor of a rebuild in order to better support the states who need it.

According to Noem, (FEMA) has been “slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated...and remade into a responsive agency.”

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The coalition of states in the lawsuit are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the spending of BRIC funds on other purposes, and a permanent injunction to reverse the termination of the BRIC program. They are also looking to require the restoration of these critical funds to the communities relying on them.

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 all join New Jersey in its filing.