FEMA BRIC Program: Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
The FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program funds pre-disaster hazard mitigation projects that reduce the long-term risk and cost of disasters for communities across the United States. Established under the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA, Public Law 115-254), BRIC replaced the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program beginning with Fiscal Year 2020 funding. Understanding BRIC's structure, eligibility rules, and decision criteria is essential for state and local governments navigating FEMA's full range of mitigation and assistance programs.
Definition and Scope
BRIC is a federal grant program administered by FEMA under the authority of Section 203 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. § 5133). Its statutory purpose is to support states, territories, federally recognized tribal governments, and local communities in undertaking hazard mitigation projects before a disaster occurs, rather than rebuilding after one.
BRIC's annual funding is drawn from post-disaster Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) expenditures: 6 percent of estimated aggregate amounts spent from the DRF following presidentially declared major disasters in a given fiscal year, as established by the DRRA (FEMA BRIC Program Overview). This formula-based approach replaced the fixed annual appropriation that funded PDM, creating a significantly larger and variable funding pool — BRIC's Fiscal Year 2020 notice of funding opportunity made approximately $500 million available, compared to the roughly $250 million that PDM distributed in its final years (FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Notices).
The program covers four primary activity categories:
- Infrastructure projects — construction or retrofit of physical structures (e.g., flood control channels, elevated roadways, retrofitted bridges) to withstand identified hazards
- Natural and nature-based features — living shorelines, wetland restoration, and similar ecosystem-based risk reduction
- Capability- and capacity-building — planning, adoption of building codes, and workforce development at the state and local level
- Management costs — administrative expenses associated with running an approved BRIC subapplication
Eligible hazards span the full spectrum of natural events that FEMA recognizes: flooding, wind, seismic activity, wildfire, drought, and others identified in state hazard mitigation plans (FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program).
How It Works
BRIC operates through a two-stage federal–state pipeline. FEMA allocates funds to each state, territory, and tribal nation through a base allocation ($600,000 per applicant as of the FY 2020 NOFO) plus a national competition pool for larger projects (FEMA BRIC Notices of Funding). Applicants submit subapplications through their State Hazard Mitigation Officer (SHMO), who consolidates and prioritizes submissions before forwarding them to FEMA.
The federal cost share for BRIC is 75 percent federal, 25 percent non-federal — the same ratio applied to the FEMA Public Assistance Program. In limited circumstances, including projects in small impoverished communities, FEMA may raise the federal share to 90 percent (44 C.F.R. § 79.4).
FEMA scores national competition subapplications against criteria including cost-effectiveness (measured through a benefit-cost analysis, or BCA), technical feasibility, and alignment with community resilience goals. The Hazard Mitigation Planning requirement is a hard prerequisite: the applicant's jurisdiction must have a FEMA-approved Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) in effect at the time of application.
Common Scenarios
BRIC funds a wide range of project types. Representative scenarios include:
- Stormwater infrastructure upgrades — a municipality installs detention basins and bioswales to reduce repetitive flood losses in a low-lying residential area, with project costs documented against expected avoided damages in a BCA
- Seismic retrofits — a county retrofits unreinforced masonry buildings in a high-seismic-risk zone, reducing life-safety exposure and potential damage to critical facilities
- Wildfire risk reduction — a community in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) funds fuel reduction treatments and ignition-resistant construction standards as part of a community wildfire protection plan
- Building code adoption — a rural jurisdiction with limited technical staff uses BRIC capacity-building funds to hire a building official and formally adopt a current edition of the International Building Code (IBC), a recognized resilience milestone under FEMA's Building Codes Save initiative (FEMA Building Codes Save)
- Nature-based flood mitigation — a coastal city restores a degraded marsh to buffer storm surge, qualifying under BRIC's natural and nature-based features category
These scenarios reflect the program's emphasis on proactive risk reduction rather than post-event relief. For context on how declarations trigger separate post-disaster grant streams, see the FEMA Disaster Declaration Process.
Decision Boundaries
BRIC differs from related FEMA programs in ways that shape applicant eligibility and project selection:
| Factor | BRIC | Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | No disaster required | Requires major disaster declaration |
| Funding basis | Formula from DRF expenditures | 15–20% of estimated total federal assistance per declaration |
| Applicant pool | Open nationally each fiscal year | Tied to the declared disaster state(s) |
| Scope emphasis | Community-scale infrastructure, code adoption | Broad mitigation including individual-property buyouts |
A project must pass FEMA's cost-effectiveness threshold — a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.0 or greater — to qualify for the national competition pool. Projects below BCR 1.0 may still qualify under certain categorical exclusions if they involve code adoption or small impoverished communities, as described in 44 C.F.R. Part 201.
Subapplications that lack an approved LHMP, fail to demonstrate technical feasibility, or cannot document a viable non-federal cost-share source are disqualified before scoring. States are also bound by FEMA's environmental and historic preservation (EHP) review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act — compliance with both is a condition of award, not an optional step (FEMA EHP Requirements).
BRIC does not fund projects that are already underway at the time of application, projects designed solely to restore pre-disaster conditions, or activities that duplicate benefits payable through the National Flood Insurance Program. Funding priority under the national competition consistently favors projects with quantified life-safety benefits, documented repetitive loss histories, and alignment with state-level resilience priorities established in State Hazard Mitigation Plans approved under 44 C.F.R. § 201.4.