BRIC and FMA Competitive Selections Announced for FY2021
Selections for more than $1 billion in climate resilience funding were announced August 1. The selections include resilience projects funded by the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) national competition and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) community-wide flood mitigation projects to reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage.
For BRIC, FEMA selected 53 competitive mitigation projects from 18 states plus the District of Columbia, totaling $795.9 million and with all 10 FEMA regions represented. The Flood Mitigation Assistance projects will go to 19 states and 72 different communities.
To align with the Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall investment benefits to disadvantaged communities, FEMA evaluated equity impacts to both programs by utilizing metrics and tools, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index tool. In total, approximately $510.1 million in selections are going to communities that meet Justice40 criteria for being underserved or disadvantaged.
Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
In 2021, BRIC funding was increased from $500 million to $1 billion, allowing FEMA to select more projects across a more diverse geographic scope than in the previous year. This resulted in FEMA more than doubling project selections and increasing the number of states with BRIC project selections.
The selections include 53 mitigation national competition projects totaling $796 million in federal cost share—not including management costs—across 19 states in 48 different communities across the nation. Selected projects will help improve community resilience to a multitude of hazards including floods, droughts and wildfires. Some of the big winners with multiple large projects funded include North Carolina with 10 projects, California with eight, Washington and New Jersey each with five, and New York with four.
| STATE | AMOUNT | % of Federal Share |
|---|---|---|
| California | $180,180,256.44 | 22.64% |
| Connecticut | $36,563,323.50 | 4.59% |
| District Of Columbia | $20,319,075.00 | 2.55% |
| Florida | $73,177,014.25 | 9.91% |
| Georgia | $30,147,160.00 | 3.79% |
| Massachusetts | $24,064,600.00 | 3.02% |
| Nebraska | $5,335,650.00 | 0.67% |
| New Jersey | $23,983,574.13 | 3.01% |
| New York | $92,884,310.22 | 11.67% |
| North Carolina | $50,070,282.72 | 6.29% |
| Oklahoma | $19,578,851.87 | 2.46% |
| Oregon | $2,704,178.25 | 0.34% |
| Pennsylvania | $25,010,092.10 | 3.14% |
| South Carolina | $7,846,235.50 | 0.99% |
| Utah | $108,266,182.00 | 13.60% |
| Virginia | $25,144,014.00 | 3.16% |
| Washington | $62,503,813.08 | 7.85% |
| Wisconsin | $6,028,190.00 | 0.76% |
| Wyoming | $2,090,889.00 | 0.26% |
Selected projects include a $25.14 million project in Virginia Beach, VA that features a variety of infrastructure, nature-based, and community outreach and education solutions to improve resilience against worsening chronic flooding; and a $189,000 project to elevate a pump station in an underserved community in Sawmills, NC. Learn more about all the selected projects at fema.gov.
Flood Mitigation Assistance
FEMA received 194 subapplications for nearly $534 million in federal cost share funding for the FMA program, which is an increase of 34% from the $399 million for Fiscal Year 2020. The total proposed project costs received exceeded $649 million.
Of the $160 million available, FEMA selected 61 subapplications totaling $134.5 million across 53 different communities in 14 states. Most of this funding— $93 million—will go toward elevation, acquisitions, and mitigation reconstruction of repetitively flood-damaged buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
In total, 25 states applied for FMA funding. Three states submitted projects with $50 million or more in federal share. Louisiana and Texas each received greater than $50 million in eligible federal share, followed by New Jersey at $21 million. Thirty-one states and territories did not submit subapplications. No tribes submitted subapplications for Flood Mitigation Assistance.
Approximately 16%—$25.1 million—will go to communities with moderate to high social vulnerability. FEMA says it will continue to evaluate this program to achieve Justice40 Initiative goals and use this year’s selections to continue to evaluate what changes can be made to promote accessibility of Flood Mitigation Assistance funding to socially vulnerable National Flood Insurance Program policyholders and communities.
Learn more about the selected FMA projects at fema.gov. Stories include a drainage project in Jefferson County, Texas and a demolition and reconstruction project in Oldham County, Kentucky.
Earlier BRIC and FMA announcements
In May, FEMA announced the first selections of FY 21 BRIC and Flood Mitigation Assistance funding, which provided expedited funding for hazard mitigation planning, adoption and enforcement of building codes and standards, project scoping and small-scale resilience projects.
FEMA also announced in May the selection of 20 diverse communities, tribes and territories set to receive non-financial direct technical assistance to help build community-wide resilience through the BRIC program. This assistance provides free support for resilience projects and application-specific needs to underserved communities that may encounter barriers when trying to access Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs.
Requests for funding continue to tick upward
As in previous years, BRIC and FMA funding requests exceeded the amounts available for Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs. For FY2021, state, local, tribal and territorial governments submitted a record-breaking number of requests for funding; totaling a combined estimate of $4.7 billion for the BRIC and FMA. The high number of communities looking to receive grant funding demonstrates the growing needs for mitigation investments nationwide.
FEMA has set up a webpage where you can see the full list of all the projects that were submitted for BRIC funding, including the 381 that were either reviewed but not selected, not selected or reviewed or did not meet HMA requirements. Visit the BRIC FY 2021 subapplication and selection status page.
FEMA anticipates the additional funding made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) will help to minimize the gap for future funding cycles.