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GAO found FEMA left undecided 700 disaster-mitigation subapplications tied to about $2.2 billion, awarded no new BRIC grants from April 2025 to March 2026, and called the program 'wasteful and ineffective' without using its own results, which showed two goals met.

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GAO report GAO-26-107774, released September 24, reviews FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which pays for work done before a disaster, such as flood control and seismic retrofits. As of March 2025, FEMA had awarded 1,245 subgrants from its first four cycles and allocated about $2.5 billion of almost $4.8 billion available, while 700 subapplications associated with about $2.2 billion sat undecided; about 50 had waited more than two years. FEMA announced the program's end on April 4, 2025, awarded no subgrants and obligated no funds from April 2025 to March 2026, and announced a restart on March 18, 2026, after a federal court ordered it to reverse the termination. FEMA officials told GAO they did not use performance information when the agency called the program 'wasteful and ineffective', though FEMA had met two of its goals. FEMA will now review the backlog, but a higher discount rate in benefit-cost analyses, 7 percent instead of 3.1 percent, may make some pending subapplications ineligible. DHS concurred with all seven recommendations.

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FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, known as BRIC, pays for work done before a disaster: flood control, safe rooms, seismic retrofits. A GAO report released September 24 counts what happened to that money when FEMA announced the program's end in April 2025 and restarted it eleven months later.

As of March 2025, FEMA had selected 700 subapplications for further review but had not decided whether to award them. They were associated with about $2.2 billion, most of what remained of the almost $4.8 billion announced for the first four cycles. About 50 had waited more than two years. From April 2025 to March 2026, FEMA awarded no subgrants and obligated no funds; a footnote puts the obligation gap at April 4, 2025 to May 8, 2026.

The decision and the evidence

FEMA's April 4, 2025 advisory announced that it was ending the program and canceling all applications from fiscal years 2020 through 2023. GAO examined the basis:

FEMA's April 2025 announcement that it was ending BRIC stated that the program was "wasteful and ineffective." However, the advisory did not provide information, such as performance results, on how FEMA determined that the program was wasteful and ineffective. In addition, agency officials told us FEMA did not use BRIC performance information to make this determination.

Its own results showed goals met. In fiscal 2022 FEMA set a target of 55 percent of National Competition funding for priority projects and awarded 66 percent. It exceeded its goal for the share of awards to disadvantaged communities in fiscal 2022 and 2023. Officials told GAO the first goal was no longer in use by fiscal 2023, and the second went unused because "the performance goal did not align with the current administration's priorities".

A similar reason appears on review times. An internal FEMA analysis had named environmental reviews and requests for information, among other things, as causes of delay. As of May 2026, officials said, FEMA had no plans to consider its findings or implement its recommendations "because the analysis did not reflect the program's current goals or the current administration's priorities".

Eleven months without answers

The advisories said selected but unawarded subapplications would not be awarded, and that fully obligated subgrants would be completed only if construction had started, without defining started construction. Until March 2026 FEMA did not say which subgrants were terminated. A GAO footnote records that "FEMA officials told us that it did not terminate any subgrants during this period".

State officials said some subrecipients stopped work, chose not to start, or withdrew. No phased project was approved to move to its second phase between April 2025 and March 2026; FEMA estimated in court filings that approving each will take another 6 to 12 months.

After twenty states sued, the federal district court in Massachusetts ordered FEMA in December 2025 to reverse the termination. FEMA announced the restart on March 18, 2026.

If your community is still waiting

  • FEMA plans to review the backlog using each cycle's own review process, and to ask subapplicants whether they want to go forward or withdraw.
  • Those projects now face a 7 percent discount rate in their benefit-cost analyses, up from 3.1 percent after an April 2025 change by the Office of Management and Budget. FEMA will let subapplicants revise, but officials "do expect some subapplications to become ineligible".
  • Officials said lower staffing and a new legal duty to notify the appropriations committees at least three business days before any Disaster Relief Fund grant above $100,000 will affect the backlog.
  • Alaska (54) and Pennsylvania (40) had the most pending subapplications; six states held about 60 percent of the pending dollars. Table 3 in Appendix VI lists every state's count.
  • The next cycle, $1 billion for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, closed to applications on July 23, 2026. It caps National Competition subgrants at $20 million, down from $50 million, and drops phased projects.

DHS concurred with all seven of GAO's recommendations.

What the report does not say

  • How many of the 700 FEMA has decided since the restart. GAO's data stop at March 24, 2025.
  • That anyone misused money. It reviews how the program was run.
  • DHS's own words. Its letter and FEMA's advisories appear only as images; this desk relies on GAO's account of them.
  • Anything generalisable from interviews with six states and six communities.

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