Attorney General Ellison sues Trump Administration for unlawfully cutting billions in disaster mitigation funding

July 16, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Attorney General Ellison today joined a coalition of 20 states in suing the Trump Administration over its decision to illegally shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) bipartisan Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, designed to protect communities from natural disasters before they strike.  

For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on preparation, the program has protected property, saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs, reduced injuries, and saved lives.  

"Preparing for natural disasters ahead of time doesn’t just save money and property, it saves lives,” said Attorney General Ellison. “The Trump Administration’s decision to shut down a crucial disaster preparedness program is foolish, cruel, and unlawful. Congress passed a law directing FEMA to fund disaster mitigation projects like flood walls, fortified bridges and roadways, and more resilient utility infrastructure. Donald Trump and his administration cannot just ignore that law because they’d rather fund tax cuts for billionaires than help protect the American people from floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters."

Responding to the catastrophic losses resulting from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Congress passed a law stating FEMA must protect communities through four interrelated functions—mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The BRIC program is the core of FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation efforts. A recent study concluded that every dollar FEMA spends on mitigation saves an average of six dollars in post-disaster costs.  

The BRIC program supports often difficult-to-fund projects, such as constructing evacuation shelters and flood walls, safeguarding utility grids against wildfires, protecting wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, and fortifying bridges, roadways, and culverts.   

The impact of the BRIC program’s termination has been devastating, with communities across the country being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding. Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars, are now threatened. As a result of this decision, Americans from coast to coast face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.    

Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. In Minnesota, BRIC funding is used by counties to update their hazard mitigation plans. Terminated BRIC funding was slated to support thirty-four Minnesota counties in updating their current plans.

Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue that FEMA’s decision to abruptly terminate the BRIC program is in direct violation of Congress’s decision to fund it. The Executive Branch has no lawful authority to unilaterally refuse to spend funds appropriated by Congress. They also assert that shutting down the BRIC program violates Separation of Powers and the Administrative Procedures Act, and violates the Appointments Clause because Cameron Hamilton, who acted as FEMA Administrator and gave the directive to terminate the BRIC program, was never appointed by the President or confirmed by the Senate and therefore was acting as Administrator unlawfully.  

With this lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump Administration from spending BRIC funds on other purposes and a permanent injunction to reverse the termination of the BRIC program and require the restoration of these critical funds to the communities relying on them.   

Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing this lawsuit are attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.