Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
A U.S District Court judge in Massachusetts on March 6 ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to restore funding for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.
FEMA had cancelled fiscal 2024 BRIC awards in April 2025, and stated that no pending applications would be reviewed or awarded. The agency also called for undistributed BRIC funds from fiscal 2020 through 2023 to be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund or the U.S Treasury.
FEMA’s actions revoked $90 million in grants for 18 communities, a regional planning commission and two state agencies in Massachusetts.
The March 6 court ruling was on a February motion filed by 24 states, including Massachusetts, to compel FEMA’s compliance with a U.S. District court order from last December.
The BRIC program is an annual Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant funded by FEMA and administered in Massachusetts through a partnership with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. BRIC makes federal funds available to states, U.S. territories, federally recognized tribal governments, and local governments for hazard mitigation activities, which have become increasingly important given the rise in extreme weather events caused by climate change.
In a prepared statement, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said that the latest federal court order allows critical projects to proceed while bringing relief to communities across the country.
Massachusetts municipalities and agencies impacted by last year’s cancellation of BRIC funding included Boston, Chelsea and Everett (a joint project), Clarksburg, and Manchester-by-the-Sea, to name a few, for projects such as planning and climate-proofing vulnerable neighborhoods, bridge upgrades, tunnel fortifications, flood and drought protection, coastal flood resilience, and hazard mitigation planning.