Public safety grants news from FEMA
Today, July 2, 2024, FEMA announced 656 selections, totaling $1 billion, for the Fiscal Year 2023 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant cycle.
The project selections will help state, local, tribal and territorial governments become more resilient to climate change and natural disasters, such as extreme heat, wildfires, drought, hurricanes, earthquakes and increased flooding.
This effort highlights the importance of FEMA’s continued commitment to putting “people first” and helping communities, families and businesses build climate resilience. It also aligns with the 2024 FEMA Year of Resilience theme to build capacity to withstand tomorrow’s hazards.
The full list and status of each subapplication submission is available by state, tribe or territory at FEMA.gov.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funded approximately $398 million to this funding cycle. Of the approximately $674 million in 56 national competition selections, more than half of the selections use nature-based solutions.
The top three funded project types are flood control, utility and infrastructure protection and building code-related expenses.
In addition to the national competition, FEMA selected 600 projects totaling $208 million. Every state and territory had a maximum $2 million available. These funds also include approximately $55 million for building code activities and $67 million for Tribal Nations. Another $116 million for states, Tribes, territories and the District of Columbia to administer these grants brings to the total to $1 billion.
This is the greatest number of projects FEMA has ever selected for building code-related activities in a grant cycle. These funds were reserved as a non-competitive set-aside for states, Tribes and territories, resulting in a 180% increase in requests for adoption and enforcement funding.
FEMA also announced 93 Tribes, local communities and territories across all 10 FEMA regions that will receive non-financial direct technical assistance to help build community-wide resilience through the BRIC program. This more than doubles the number of recipients from last year. For a full list of communities, visit FEMA.gov.
Additional Details
Of the available funding, $587 million is benefitting Justice40 communities that are overburdened by pollution and marginalized by underinvestment. Since 2020, FEMA has seen an upward trend of exceeding its Justice40 goals.
Additionally, $127 million will benefit Community Disaster Resilience Zones. The Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act — signed into law by President Biden in 2022 — allows FEMA to identify U.S. Census tracts that are most at risk from the effects of natural hazards and climate change.
FEMA announced this funding opportunity in October 2023 alongside an $800 million Flood Mitigation Assistance opportunity. Selections for Flood Mitigation Assistance will be made later this year.