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The Frozen Project

The Shoreline That Was Promised

By Maya Jiménez— May 20, 2026

Feature image for article: The Shoreline That Was Promised

Alameda, California spent years engineering a $55.5 million shoreline adaptation plan and assembling a 30-partner coalition to apply for FEMA's BRIC program. The funding was canceled by memo, restored by court order, and reopened with a $20 million cap that structurally excludes the project it was meant to fund. Applications are due July 23. Bay Farm Island flooded in January, exactly where the city's maps predicted. The resilience officer who designed the integrated plan is now breaking it into fragments small enough to fit through whatever funding windows remain open. Construction, if it happens, won't start until 2030. The next storm season begins this fall.

The Frozen Project

The Shoreline That Was Promised

By Maya Jiménez— May 20, 2026

Alameda, California spent years engineering a $55.5 million shoreline adaptation plan and assembling a 30-partner coalition to apply for FEMA's BRIC program. The funding was canceled by memo, restored by court order, and reopened with a $20 million cap that structurally excludes the project it was meant to fund. Applications are due July 23. Bay Farm Island flooded in January, exactly where the city's maps predicted. The resilience officer who designed the integrated plan is now breaking it into fragments small enough to fit through whatever funding windows remain open. Construction, if it happens, won't start until 2030. The next storm season begins this fall.

The Legal Fight

Courts Ordered FEMA to Restore $4.5 Billion in Pre-Disaster Mitigation Funds. The Money Still Hasn't Arrived.

Twenty-three states sued FEMA over its cancellation of the BRIC program and won three times. A preliminary injunction in August 2025. A final ruling in December declaring the termination unlawful. An enforcement order in March 2026 after the agency simply ignored the first two. FEMA conceded on March 21.

The operational reality hasn't changed. Of roughly $4.6 billion in competitively selected BRIC projects from FY2020 through 2023, only about $1 billion was ever formally obligated. Obligated didn't mean disbursed. A DHS policy requiring the Secretary's personal sign-off on any expenditure over $100,000 created a bottleneck that froze even legally committed funds. Then the DHS shutdown, running mid-February through late April, froze them again. The court restored the statutory mandate. It has no mechanism to move the money.

The Legal Fight

Courts Ordered FEMA to Restore $4.5 Billion in Pre-Disaster Mitigation Funds. The Money Still Hasn't Arrived.

Twenty-three states sued FEMA over its cancellation of the BRIC program and won three times. A preliminary injunction in August 2025. A final ruling in December declaring the termination unlawful. An enforcement order in March 2026 after the agency simply ignored the first two. FEMA conceded on March 21.

The operational reality hasn't changed. Of roughly $4.6 billion in competitively selected BRIC projects from FY2020 through 2023, only about $1 billion was ever formally obligated. Obligated didn't mean disbursed. A DHS policy requiring the Secretary's personal sign-off on any expenditure over $100,000 created a bottleneck that froze even legally committed funds. Then the DHS shutdown, running mid-February through late April, froze them again. The court restored the statutory mandate. It has no mechanism to move the money.

Partisan disparity: Republican-governor states saw 89% of disaster funding requests approved versus 23% for Democratic-governor states, the sharpest split since FEMA's founding.

Treasury return: $882 million in bipartisan Infrastructure Act funds earmarked for BRIC were slated to be sent back to Treasury unspent.

Capacity gutted: The relaunched BRIC eliminates planning grants and phased projects, severing the pipeline smaller communities used to build applications.

Fund drain: The Disaster Relief Fund's pre-disaster mitigation balance fell from $4.86 billion to $784 million in four months through redirection.

Zero approvals: No new hazard mitigation funding has been obligated under any FEMA program since March 2025.

What's Been Cut

Since January 2025, the federal government has frozen, defunded, or dismantled virtually every program designed to help Americans prepare for climate disasters and recover from them. Not one program at a time. All of them, more or less at once.

The Congressional Research Service confirmed in January 2026 that no new funding has been approved for any FEMA hazard mitigation program since March 2025. The entire pre-disaster mitigation infrastructure went dark simultaneously.

Below are six specific programs and funding streams affected. The figures are drawn from CRS, GAO, and agency records. They describe the removal of a safety net that communities were actively relying on, many mid-recovery from disasters already underway.

What's Been Cut

Since January 2025, the federal government has frozen, defunded, or dismantled virtually every program designed to help Americans prepare for climate disasters and recover from them. Not one program at a time. All of them, more or less at once.

The Congressional Research Service confirmed in January 2026 that no new funding has been approved for any FEMA hazard mitigation program since March 2025. The entire pre-disaster mitigation infrastructure went dark simultaneously.

Below are six specific programs and funding streams affected. The figures are drawn from CRS, GAO, and agency records. They describe the removal of a safety net that communities were actively relying on, many mid-recovery from disasters already underway.

Mitigation Grants

Five Billion in Pre-Disaster Grants, Gone

BRIC distributed roughly $5 billion in pre-disaster mitigation grants starting in 2020. FEMA killed the program in April 2025, leaving $750 million in planned funding unallocated. Nearly 2,000 applicants requesting $13 billion had already been rejected before cancellation. A court ordered restoration in December 2025. FEMA has not complied.

Flood Mitigation

Flood Mitigation Funding Pulled After Six Weeks

FEMA posted a $600 million Flood Mitigation Assistance notice on January 6, 2025, then retracted it February 14. No new FMA funding has been awarded since. The program targets repetitive-loss properties insured through the National Flood Insurance Program, the homes that flood again and again.

Post-Disaster Grants

Post-Disaster Mitigation Grants Frozen Since March 2025

HMGP, historically the largest federal hazard mitigation funding stream, has approved no grants for any new disaster declaration since March 2025. Communities recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the 2025 Texas floods cannot access post-disaster mitigation money.

Farm Conservation

Farmer Adaptation Programs Cut, Staff Walking Out

Congress cut Conservation Technical Assistance by nearly $100 million in FY2026 while removing payment caps that kept large operations from consuming disproportionate shares. Nearly one in four NRCS field staff departed in 2025. The agency that helps farmers adapt to drought and erosion is at record-low staffing.