Judge blocks Trump admin. from reallocating billions in FEMA disaster relief funds

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's efforts to reallocate more than $4 billion in federal funding geared toward natural disaster mitigation projects, arguing the transfer could lead to "irreparable harm" to flood-prone areas.

The injunction by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston followed a July lawsuit brought by 20 states. They argued that FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program had been unlawfully terminated in April 2025 under the Trump administration, with more than $4 billion in unspent funding that had been allocated by Congress redirected without its authority. Stearns wrote that the court was "not convinced" that Congress had intended for the money to be reallocated.

"The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives," Stearns wrote.

Stearns ruled that government officials were temporarily blocked from repurposing the funds while the court considers the state's objections to the cuts.

The July lawsuit alleged that ending the BRIC program would upend disaster preparedness efforts across the country, leaving communities unable to tap into critical funding for hundreds of already-approved resilience projects. Before it was halted, the BRIC program provided funding for local infrastructure projects such as stormwater management systems and the relocation or elevation of buildings in flood-prone zones.

FEMA officials originally announced in April that they were "ending" the BRIC program because it is "wasteful" and had become more concerned with "political agendas than helping Americans recover from natural disasters." But in a court filing last week, the disaster response agency walked back those comments, stating that they hadn't cut the program and were still evaluating whether they will end or revise it.

A CBS News investigation in June revealed that the recent BRIC funding cuts have disproportionately affected counties that supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election, with two-thirds of the counties that lost funding having voted for the president. The elimination of the BRIC program will especially deprive vulnerable communities across the Southeast — an area prone to natural disasters — the CBS News data analysis found.