Attorney General Mayes Fights to Restore Billions in Federal Disaster Preparedness Funding Unlawfully Cut by Trump Administration

PHOENIX  – Attorney General Mayes and a coalition of 23 states today filed a motion asking the District Court of Massachusetts to enforce its December 11, 2025 order that prohibited the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from terminating the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program (BRIC) and directed the agency to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination.

"We won this case, and the court was clear — this termination was unlawful and FEMA was ordered to reverse it," said Attorney General Mayes. "Yet two months later, Arizona communities like Buckeye and Camp Verde are still waiting for flood protections that could save lives and property while the Trump Administration simply ignores a federal court order. It is a direct attack on the rule of law itself."

For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on mitigation and community resilience, the program has saved lives, reduced injury, protected property, and saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs.   

On July 16, 2025, Attorney General Mayes and the coalition filed a lawsuit to prevent FEMA from terminating its BRIC program – an action which had already delayed, scaled back, and cancelled hundreds of mitigation projects across the country depending on this funding. On December 11, 2025, the coalition won their case. The court declared the termination of this congressionally mandated program unlawful and ordered FEMA to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination. 

Over two months have passed and the federal government has offered no indication that they have complied with the court order. FEMA’s regional offices lack information about whether and when it will resume the BRIC program, and some have indicated that FEMA is taking a “wait and see” approach—contrary to the clear terms of the court’s order. During this time, the federal government has not identified any concrete steps that it has taken to reverse the BRIC termination. 

AG Mayes and the coalition are asking the court to enforce the December 11 order by requiring the federal government to make pre-disaster mitigation funds available as required by statute, communicate the status and next steps for current BRIC projects to the states, communicate the reversal of the BRIC termination to all relevant stakeholders, and file status reports with the court outlining any actions taken or planned to comply with the order.  

Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. In Arizona, BRIC funding would support critical disaster mitigation projects, including:

• A $4.6 million infrastructure project in the city of Buckeye, Arizona. The city regularly experiences floods that threaten the safety of its businesses and families. The BRIC funding would have been used to divert flood water away from the historic downtown by connecting the drainage system to existing irrigation canals and constructing a retention basin to collect the floodwater.  
• The town of Camp Verde, Arizona was similarly selected for a roughly $860,000 flood mitigation project to secure a major roadway against flooding. Emergency vehicles rely on this roadway to provide services to the area’s 5,000 residents. Flooding causes significant delay in the provision of services, as well as the residents’ access to the town.

Joining AG Mayes in filing this motion are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington, and the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 

A copy of the proposed order is here.