FEMA BRIC Backlog Stalls $191 Million In California Resilience Projects

A growing Federal Emergency Management Agency backlog has stalled at least $191 million in Southern California climate resilience projects, leaving counties and cities waiting years for promised funding under the agency's BRIC grant program.^[1]

Emergency managers say FEMA has not approved a single pending California application under the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program this year and is slow to pay out on projects it has already agreed to fund, even as flood, wildfire and heat risks rise.^[1] In San Bernardino County, a $15 million BRIC-backed flood-control project remains stuck in the design phase because local officials are still waiting for federal dollars to arrive, part of what a recent Government Accountability Office report identified as a $2.2 billion nationwide backlog in resilience grants.^[1]

The logjam began building after the Trump administration moved to cancel the BRIC program in March 2025, halting new work and scattering staff just as a growing number of states were applying for large-scale resilience projects. A federal judge ordered FEMA to continue BRIC in the spring of 2026, but state and local officials say the program has limped back to life with far fewer people assigned to review California applications, contributing to long delays for projects some cities first proposed in 2022. FEMA has not publicly detailed how it is triaging the $2.2 billion queue, but local emergency managers in Southern California told CBS News that staff cuts on the California portfolio have left their projects effectively frozen.^[1]

The result, local officials warn, is that shovel-ready efforts to harden flood channels, upgrade storm drains, and protect vulnerable neighborhoods from extreme weather are not moving forward even as the region faces another winter of intense Pacific storms and longer wildfire seasons. They argue that delays in resilience spending can cost more in the long run, since every year without upgrades increases the odds of disaster damage that will be far more expensive for FEMA and taxpayers to cover after the fact. State and county emergency managers are pressing FEMA for clearer timelines and more staffing, but until the backlog eases, they say communities that did the work to plan and design projects are stuck waiting, with no certainty about when construction can begin.

1. CBS News