AJR 11: Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program: federal funding cuts.

WHEREAS, The federal government has historically provided resources to assist in post­disaster recovery and to reduce future risk; and

WHEREAS, Funding for pre­disaster mitigation changed significantly with the passage of the federal Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018. Under this act, for each major disaster declaration the President may set aside from the Disaster Relief Fund an amount equal to 6 percent of the estimated aggregate amount of funding awarded under seven sections of the federal Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 5121 et seq.); and

WHEREAS, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) introduced a new program in fiscal year 2020, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant Program (BRIC), to provide states, territories, tribes, and local governments with grants to reduce risk consistent with all of the following priorities:

(a) Natural hazard risk reduction activities that mitigate risk to public infrastructure and disadvantaged communities.

(b) Projects that incorporate nature­based solutions.

(c) Projects that enhance climate resilience and adaption.

(d) Adoption and enforcement of the latest published editions of building codes; and

WHEREAS, FEMA’s BRIC program is a critical component of the nation’s hazard mitigation strategy, which is driven by the fact that investments in hazard mitigation reduce the costs of disasters and save lives; and

WHEREAS, On April 4, 2025, FEMA announced it is ending the BRIC program and canceling all BRIC applications from fiscal years 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023; and

WHEREAS, According to FEMA, BRIC grant funds that have not been distributed to states, tribes, territories, and local communities will be immediately returned to either the Disaster Relief Fund or the United States Treasury; and

WHEREAS, The California Office of Emergency Services has identified up to $870,000,000 in BRIC projects in California that will lose federal funding for critical hazard mitigation including all of the following projects:

(a) The Wildfire Mitigation Program in the County of Napa will lose approximately $35,000,000.

(b) The Paradise Irrigation District Magalia Dam Seismic Retrofit project will lose approximately $37,500,000.

(c) The California Earthquake Authority Soft-Story Program will lose approximately $41,600,000.

(d) The Shoreline Adaptation project in the County of Orange will lose approximately $9,800,000.

(e) The El Dorado Irrigation District Critical Water System Infrastructure Protection project will lose approximately $7,000,000.

(f) The Nature-Based Mitigation and Wildfire Retrofitting for Climate Resiliency project in the County of Nevada will lose approximately $32,000,000.

(g) The City of Rancho Palos Verdes Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation project will lose approximately $24,300,000.

(h) The Karuk Tribe Fire-Adaptive Community Resilience project will lose approximately $11,500,000.

(i) The Wildfire Resilient project in the County of Sonoma will lose approximately $37,000,000.

(j) The City of Healdsburg Water Resiliency project will lose approximately $6,000,000.

(k) The Wildfire Resilience project in the County of Mendocino will lose approximately $37,900,000.

(l) The Wildfire Resilient Communities project in the County of Santa Cruz will lose approximately $11,300,000.

(m) The Imperial Irrigation District K-Line Transmission Hardening project will lose approximately $23,900,000.

(n) The City of Sacramento North Beach Levee and Habitat Resiliency project will lose approximately $15,000,000.

(o) The City of Rohnert Park Copeland Creek Detention Basin project will lose approximately $6,000,000.

(p) The City of Menlo Park Strategy to Advance Flood Protection, Ecosytems, and Recreation Along San Francisco Bay (SAFER Bay) project will lose approximately $50,000,000;

(q) The City of Santa Cruz Pump Station Mitigation project will lose approximately $11,300,000.

(r) The Grayson and Walnut Creek Levee Project will lose approximately $2,500,000.

(s) The Town of Grimes Floodplain Restoration and Levee Resiliency project will lose approximately $19,000,000.

(t) The City of Imperial Beach Bayside Community Resiliency project will lose approximately $18,300,000.

(u) The Belvedere Lagoon Coastal Levee System Resiliency project will lose approximately $15,600,000.

(v) The Cable Creek Basin Flood Mitigation project in the County of San Bernardino will lose approximately $15,000,00.

(w) The City of Shafter Nature­Based Drought Mitigation Project will lose approximately $12,400,000.

(x) The City of Riverbank Recycled Water and Water Supply Resiliency project will lose approximately $50,000,000.

(y) The Port of San Francisco Downtown Coastal Resilience project will lose approximately $50,000,000.

(z) The Climate Change Resiliency project in the County of Yuba will lose approximately $29,700,000.

(aa) The Inland Empire Recycled Water and Aquifer Storage project in th County of San Bernardino will lose approximately $46,300,000.

(ab) The City of Pacifica Beach Boulevard Infrastructure Resiliency project will lose approximately $50,000,000.

(ac) The Kern Valley Healthcare District Hospital Seismic Retrofitting project will lose approximately $22,700,000.

(ad) The City of Hillsborough Highline Pipeline Project for Potable Water Multi-Hazard Resilience will lose approximately $23,400,000.

(ae) The Oceano Flood Mitigation project in the County of San Luis Obispo will lose approximately $1,000,000.

(af) The Sutter Bypass East Levee project will lose approximately $50,000,000.

(ag) The El Dorado Irrigation District Climate Adaptive Water Infrastructure Resiliency Project will lose approximately $14,600,000.

(ah) The Flood Control District Mission Channel project in the County of San Bernardino will lose approximately $36,400,000.

(ai) The Oakland Alameda Flood Adaptation and Community Benefits project will lose approximately $50,000,000; and

WHEREAS, The above amounts for each project represent the federal award and do not include local and private sector investments identified to complete or broaden these hazard mitigation projects that are intended to alleviate human suffering and avoid economic losses from floods, wildfires, and other disasters in California; and

WHEREAS, Cutting funding from projects already underway will leave state and communities scrambling, increasing disaster risk to families and businesses instead of reducing it. The impact of this decision will be felt for decades to come; and

WHEREAS, FEMA has also canceled the fiscal year 2024 notice of funding opportunity, where $750,000,000 in grants was to be allocated; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States to immediately restore full funding for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program projects to avoid predictable, costly, and preventable disasters; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.