Vermont and 23 other states scored a legal victory on Thursday in a lawsuit that challenged the Trump administration’s elimination of funding for projects that help communities better withstand natural disasters.
Communities around Vermont that have been flooded in recent years had turned to a Federal Emergency Management Agency program called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities to pay for projects that would prepare them for the next flood. FEMA announced in April that it was canceling the program, known as BRIC, affecting 2,000 projects nationwide that had been selected for $4.5 billion in funding. In Vermont, 36 projects that would cost more than $5 million were at stake.
The Trump administration contends the program is wasteful and ineffective. But many local officials have said that it makes more sense and is cheaper to prepare for disasters than to repeatedly repair damage in flood-prone areas.
Scott Pickup, the municipal manager for the Town of Rockingham, said BRIC was to pay for a culvert project intended to prevent future damage to Route 121, which has been washed out by floods.
“I thought BRIC was a forward-thinking, thoughtful way to address some serious problems that were occurring,” Pickup told Seven Days earlier this year. “The way that the system is set up now, we’ll simply be paying over and over for problems that aren’t going to go away.”
A federal judge in Massachusetts sided with the states on Thursday, ruling that the executive branch cannot refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress. Judge Richard G. Stearns ordered the administration not to freeze or cancel the program absent Congressional approval.
Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, who has joined other states in dozens of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration, said she was thrilled by the decision.
“This is a win not only for Vermont communities devastated by severe floods, but for every community in this country still experiencing the impacts of climate disasters,” Clark said in a press release.
President Donald Trump has been highly critical of FEMA and wants to shutter the agency. A federal task force charged with reshaping the agency is considering renaming it and slashing half of its employees, CNN has reported.