FEMA offers more than $3B for two climate resilience grants

Utilizing money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) put up more than $3 billion in funding last week for two grant programs meant to help communities improve resilience to climate change and extreme weather.

“Climate change is an existential threat to our nation and our national security, as extreme weather events increasingly are disrupting our lives and our economy,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “With historic levels of funding for the BRIC and FMA programs being announced today, we are investing in our nation’s resilience and building individual and community preparedness across the country.”

BRIC refers to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities annual grant program, meant to fund projects to protect people and infrastructure from natural hazards and the effects of climate change. On the other hand, FMA is the Flood Mitigation Assistance program, which provides for projects that negate flood risks. BRIC’s budget nearly doubled with the new funding, while the FMA received a five-fold increase.

“Chronic lack of investment in climate resilience has only made matters worse for America’s crumbling infrastructure,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said. “Unfortunately, these issues are magnified in historically underserved communities. Through this funding and the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we seek to correct this injustice and ensure that every community is better able to prepare before disasters strike.”

States, local communities, Tribes, and territories will be able to take advantage of these grants to fund pre-disaster efforts and reduce future disaster-related costs. Such costs and dangers are expected to worsen as climate change leads to greater temperatures, more severe floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and more.