A federal judge has ruled in favor of Kentucky, 21 states, and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit involving funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The ruling bars the Trump administration from unlawfully withholding disaster funds tied to a key pre-natural disaster mitigation program administered by FEMA.
The lawsuit was filed in the summer and set out to protect more than $21 million in funding appropriated by Congress and awarded to Kentucky projects aimed at protecting lives and communities from future natural disasters.
FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program provides crucial funding to make communities safer and better able to withstand major storm damage.
FEMA’s termination of the program left the commonwealth with 13 unfunded projects despite Congress appropriating over $18 million in funding. The termination also cut nearly $3 million for management costs that were awarded to Kentucky.
Projects at risk in Eastern Kentucky include flood control measures, emergency generators, and warning sirens.
A $10.5 million project in Frankfort to identify the most effective flood protection for the city after its second-highest flooding in history this past April was also at risk.
Along with Kentucky, plaintiffs in the lawsuit included the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.
A copy of the lawsuit is available here.
