Triple-I Blog | Louisiana Senator Seeks Resumption of Resilience Investment Program

By Lewis Nibbelin, Contributing Author, Triple-I

Louisiana Sen. Invoice Cassidy just lately took to the Senate ground to name for restoration of FEMA’s Constructing Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, whose elimination the company introduced on April 4.

Established by Congress via the Catastrophe Restoration Reform Act of 2018, the BRIC program has allotted greater than $5 billion for funding in mitigation tasks to scale back financial losses from floods, wildfires, and different disasters for tons of of communities. Ending BRIC will cancel all functions from 2020-2023 and rescind greater than $185 million in grants supposed for Louisiana, leaving the 34 submitted and accepted tasks funded by these grants in limbo.

Whereas the FEMA press launch described BRIC as “wasteful and ineffective,” Cassidy recognized “not doing this system after which having to rescue communities when the inevitable flood happens – that’s waste, as a result of we may have prevented that from occurring within the first place.”

Mitigation funding saves

Cassidy defined that flooding causes as much as $496 billion in damages yearly all through america, including that, “after we put money into levees and floodwalls, communities are protected when the storm hits, and we save billions on a restoration effort we by no means needed to do.”

A 2024 research backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce helps this declare, which discovered that catastrophe mitigation investments save $13 in advantages for each greenback spent.

FEMA’s resolution coincides with restoration efforts in Natchitoches, a small Louisiana metropolis, after flash flooding inundated houses and downed energy strains simply weeks earlier than. BRIC was set to fund enhancements to town’s backup generator system to pump out floodwater throughout extreme climate.

Equally, Lafourche Parish will lose $20 million to strengthen 16 miles of energy strains, which Cassidy famous toppled “like dominos” throughout final yr’s Hurricane Francine. Jefferson Parish residents displaced following Hurricane Ida in 2021 will lose the house elevation catastrophe grants they lastly secured earlier this yr.

“Louisiana was the third-largest recipient of BRIC’s most up-to-date spherical of funding and is the biggest recipient on a per capita foundation,” Cassidy stated. “With out BRIC, none of those tasks can be attainable.”

A nationwide drawback

Past Louisiana, Cassidy pointed to quite a few states ravaged by extreme storms up to now this yr, significantly inland communities the place flooding is historically sudden. At the very least 25 individuals died amid a extreme climate outbreak throughout the southern and midwestern U.S. final month, underscoring a rising want for resiliency planning in non-coastal areas.

BRIC is one in all many applications going through sudden termination underneath the Trump Administration. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit demanding the federal authorities unfreeze important funding, together with BRIC grants. Although the administration is reportedly complying with a federal decide’s order blocking the freeze, the states concerned declare funding stays inaccessible.

Louisiana has not joined the lawsuit, however Cassidy emphasised the congressional appropriation of this system and requested the success of preexisting BRIC functions. He argued that “to do something aside from use that cash to fund flood mitigation tasks is to thwart the need of Congress.”

As President Trump weighs disbanding FEMA solely – at the same time as FEMA responds to record-breaking numbers of billion-dollar disasters – it’s crucial to acknowledge the huge co-beneficiary advantages of catastrophe resilience, and develop our partnerships throughout these stakeholder teams.

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