An activist federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s plan to reallocate $4 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
CBS News reported that the funds would come from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.
The agency eliminated the program in April.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of Boston, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued his ruling on Tuesday that blocked the plan.
The case was brought in July by Massachusetts and 19 other Democrat-led states.
The states sued over FEMA’s ability to dispense with funds meant for fortifying infrastructure against natural disasters.
Before its elimination, BRIC set aside funding for flood control, including stormwater management infrastructure, or elevating or relocating buildings in areas that experience repeated floods.
The Democrat-aligned judge contended that using funds from the canceled program on anything but disaster relief would cause “irreparable harm” to areas prone to flooding.
“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” Stearns wrote of the since-eliminated program.
The activist judge also insisted that he’s “not convinced” that the money Congress had set aside for BRIC should be reallocated to other projects based on how it was awarded.
According to Newsweek, FEMA said in a news release published April 4, 2025, that BRIC was being eliminated as “yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program.”
It said that the program was “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”
The agency has since walked back that position, including removing that news release from the website.
FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson, said that the “BRIC program provides technical and financial assistance to States and local governments for cost-effective pre-disaster hazard mitigation measures that reduce injuries, loss of life, and damage and destruction of property,” in a reversal of April’s news release.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security [Kristi Noem] has not made a final decision to end the BRIC program,” Richardson said, adding that “no grants have yet been canceled.”
Still, the states that brought the lawsuit against the Trump administration over the funds say Trump is playing politics.
“The president keeps breaking the law, and we keep holding him accountable in court. Shuttering this program would do nothing to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse or improve government efficiency,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the lawsuit’s lead plaintiffs, said in July.
“This is a program with bipartisan support that is focused on protecting lives and livelihoods from flooding, wildfires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters,” he added.
However, like many government programs, suspected partisanship in FEMA seems to cut against Republicans, including one high-profile case in Florida.
As the Daily Wire reported at the time, employees of FEMA were fired after it was revealed that officials in the agency told disaster relief workers to skip houses with Trump signs in Florida.
The news outlet shared a screenshot of an internal message in a bombshell exclusive on November 8.
EXCLUSIVE: Internal messages obtained by The Daily Wire show a FEMA official ordered relief workers in Florida not to help houses with Trump signs pic.twitter.com/o73ejUuYUG
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 8, 2024
At least 20 homes with Trump signs in the Lake Placid, Florida, area were not offered aid following Hurricane Milton, as per the directive.
In a letter to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in March, FEMA’s then-acting director Cameron Hamilton explained that three employees in supervisory roles were fired over the issue.
“As you know, FEMA terminated that crew lead’s employment with the agency on November 9. Since then, in cooperation with the Office of Inspector General and the Office of the Special Counsel, FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) — which reports directly to me — conducted an exhaustive investigation of this incident to determine the full extent of any further inappropriate behavior or misconduct,” Hamilton noted.
The White House has been blindsided by judicial decisions that are reversing agenda items.
Whether the BRIC program was politicized or not, it seems that each agency should be able to make decisions about where its funds end up, regardless of who is in the White House.
READ MORE – California Judge Blocks Trump’s TPS Policy, Accuses DHS of ‘Racism’ Toward Migrants
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