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.