Chantal's floodwaters left significant damage to Camp Easter Rd. and N.C. 2 in Southern Pines, NC on July 8, 2025. (Photo courtesy of NCDOT)
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a coalition of states in suing the Trump administration Wednesday for ending a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that was designed to help prepare for natural disasters.
Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called out the agency for ending an all-purpose pre-disaster mitigation program named Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC.
FEMA has selected about 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding over the past four years, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs accused FEMA of acting unlawfully and violating “core separation of powers principles” by shutting down BRIC, going against Congress’ “statutory direction that Defendants must prioritize mitigation and are specifically barred from substantially reducing FEMA’s mitigation functions.”
Specifically, the states identify Cameron Hamilton as responsible for terminating BRIC in April after Trump appointed him as the acting director of FEMA.
“Neither Mr. Hamilton nor his successor, David Richardson, were lawfully appointed to run FEMA, and they therefore lack the authority to shut down the BRIC program,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit follows flooding in North Carolina and neighboring states from Tropical Storm Chantal, as well as storms killing more than 130 people in Texas and unprecedented flooding across other areas of the country.
A report originally published by Inside Climate News and republished Wednesday by NC Newsline revealed that Hillsborough, North Carolina — a town that received serious flooding from Chantal — was in line to receive millions of dollars in BRIC funding that would have helped it better withstand such a disaster before FEMA cancelled the project. All told, ICN reported that 40 North Carolina governments had been owed $121 million in BRIC funding before the cutoff.
“This was not FEMA’s money to cancel, this was Congress’ money. Congress not only approved the money, but they specifically told FEMA this is how they wanted them to spend the money,” Jackson told Spectrum News. “It was not FEMA’s authority to cancel these projects.”
Coastal communities have received the largest allocations of this funding over the past four years, according to the lawsuit. This includes states like California, Louisiana, Texas, New York, Florida, and North Carolina.
Other states filing the lawsuit along with North Carolina are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.