NC sues Trump administration over $225 million in grants for disaster mitigation
North Carolina is suing the Trump administration for terminating a federal grant program that was going to provide the state with nearly $225 million to support pending infrastructure resiliency and disaster preparedness projects.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a lawsuit brought against the Trump administration on Wednesday by a total of 20 states. It argues that the decision by leaders at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to end the grant program, which was expanded with bipartisan congressional support during the first Trump administration, was unconstitutional and illegal.
Over the last four years, the program, named Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, has been relied on by states all over the country, the lawsuit states, with nearly 2,000 projects being selected in that time to receive almost $4.5 billion in funding.
In North Carolina, there are currently 72 open projects that were selected by FEMA between fiscal years 2020 and 2023 to receive a total of roughly $225 million in grant funding, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
The lawsuit brought by Jackson and other Democratic state attorneys general, and filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, seeks a preliminary injunction to stop FEMA from spending BRIC funds for other purposes, and a permanent injunction ordering the agency to restore the program and grants that have been approved for states.
The BRIC program during Trump’s first term
In a statement, Jackson noted that President Donald Trump “helped establish and strengthen” the BRIC program during his first term in office. Jackson said the program has been a “lifeline” for towns and cities across North Carolina that have been trying to protect their water and sewer systems, and “prevent the next storm from devastating their communities.”
“In North Carolina, we know what it takes to rebuild from a disaster,” Jackson said. “This money helps us better prepare for future storms. FEMA was wrong to break the law and cancel this money, which will save lives. I’m taking it to court to win these funds back for our state.”
Governor Josh Stein said he supported Jackson’s effort to try to compel FEMA to restore the program through legal action, saying in a statement that “building more resilient infrastructure helps to mitigate damage and save lives and money.” He also called on FEMA to reinstate the program.
FEMA ended the BRIC program in early April as the Trump administration was considering eliminating the agency entirely.
The agency said in a statement at the time, reported by E&E News, that the program was “another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with climate change than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
Which grants were canceled in NC?
The termination of the program prompted a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers to write to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in May, urging FEMA to reinstate it.
That letter, which was led by two North Carolina Republicans, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, acknowledged that the program has “room for improvement” and should be evaluated for ways to “increase efficiency” and make it easier for grant recipients to access resources, but warned that “forgoing these critical investments will only make it harder and more expensive for communities to recover from the next storm.”
The pending grants in North Carolina that were canceled include nearly $7 million that had been awarded to Hillsborough and $22.5 million that had been awarded to Salisbury for pump station relocation projects to protect the infrastructure from flooding and maintain supplies of drinking water, according to Jackson’s office.
A list of the other projects that were slated to receive funds under the program in North Carolina, provided by Jackson’s office, is available here.
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM with the headline "NC sues Trump administration over $225 million in grants for disaster mitigation."
