Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities FY 2020 Subapplication Status

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program seeks to categorically shift the federal focus from reactive disaster spending toward research-supported, proactive investment in community resilience so when the hurricane, flood or wildfire comes, communities are better prepared. BRIC provides funds on an annual basis for hazard mitigation planning and the implementation of mitigation projects prior to a disaster.

On July 1, 2021, FEMA announced the selections of subapplications for the $700 million available in Fiscal Year 2020 (FY 2020) for BRIC and FMA grant funding. This includes 38 tribes that have been selected for planning, project and management costs totaling $26.1 million total project costs.

The BRIC FY 2020 application period opened on Sept. 30, 2020, and closed on Jan. 29, 2021. Eligible applicants applied using the new FEMA Grants Outcome (FEMA GO), which is now the grant management system for FMA and BRIC.

This announcement is not an award; it’s a decision on the status of all subapplications.

FEMA reviewed each subapplication to ensure eligibility and minimum program requirements were met. BRIC competitive subapplications then went through a two-part scoring process.  In addition, a National Technical Review (NTR) team reviewed all eligible project subapplications for cost-effectiveness and engineering feasibility for FMA and the top ranked $1 billion federal share requested for BRIC.

All eligible projects must also go through an Environmental and Historic Preservation review.

Based upon its review, FEMA has placed each subapplicant in one of three categories: Identified for Further Review, Not Selected or Did Not Meet Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Requirements.

FEMA will work with applicants selected for “Further Review” to conduct programmatic reviews of the selected subapplications before making a final decision for funding. While FEMA has announced the selections of subapplications for FY 2020, the actual awards are anticipated to be made in the FEMA Grants Outcomes (FEMA GO) system beginning late December 2021.

For additional information or to ask questions, grant applicants should contact their FEMA regional office.

The data shown below represents a summary of the subapplications received by FEMA to apply for the funding available through BRIC ($500 million). Scroll down the page to see specific information about BRIC selections by state.

FEMA received 1,227 subapplications that requested an estimated $4 billion in funding across the BRIC and FMA grant programs. 

91 applicants, including 38 Tribes have subapplications that are selected for further review.

• FEMA received 991 subapplications for BRIC funding of which 406 have been selected for further review.
• For FY 2020, the total number of projects selected total the $500 million that was made available for funding with total project costs exceeding $1.18 billion.

• 53 states and territories applied for BRIC. Of these, 25 states submitted projects that totaled $50 million or more federal share.
• Five states submitted projects with over $200 million federal share: California, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia.
• Tribes submitted 73 subapplications requesting an estimated $22.1 million in federal funding.

• States, territories and tribes submitted requests for the use of BRIC assistance that includes Mitigation Projects, Capability and Capacity Building Activities and Management Costs.
• FEMA also selected projects submitted by 46 small and impoverished communities totaling $39.2 million in total project costs.
• FEMA also selected 8 communities to receive non-financial Direct Technical Assistance through BRIC for FY2020, of which 6 are small and impoverished communities and 3 tribes.

Uses of BRIC Assistance	Number of Subapplications Selected	Total Amount of Project Costs	% of Total Dollars Requested	% of the Subapplications Selected
Mitigation Projects	65	$766.1 Million	15.2%	19.3%
Capability and Capacity Building Activities	272	$36.72 Million		80.7%
Management Costs	69	$78.3 Million
Direct Technical Assistance	8

Project Types Summary

There are various types of projects eligible for BRIC funding. The lists below reflects the top five project types selected by Total Project Cost and Number of Subapplications that do not include Management Costs.

Top Five Project Types by Total Project Cost

1. Flood Control = $550 million
2. Utility/Infrastructure Protection = $91.3 million
3. Wildfire Management = $49.3 million
4. Relocation = $21.9 million
5. Safe Room/shelters = $15.2 million

Top Five Project Types by Number of Subapplications

1. Plan Updates = 123 subapplications
2. Engineering, Environmental, Feasibility, and/or Benefit-Cost Analysis = 72 subapplications
3. Planning Related Activities = 20 subapplications
4. Flood Control = 16 subapplications
5. New Plan = 16 subapplications

Highlights of BRIC’s FY 2020 Selections

• During FY 2020, FEMA allocated a maximum amount of $600,000 available for each state.
• Another $20 million was set aside for federally recognized tribes. 
  • For the tribal set-aside, FEMA received submittals by 40 federally recognized tribes, in which 38 tribes have been selected for further review for more than $26.1 million in total project costs.
• FEMA selected the remaining non-tribal set-aside BRIC funds on a nationally competitive basis:
  • 22 projects were selected in the national competition based upon cumulative scores and rankings
  • $17.17 million is the average federal share
  • 2 Small and Impoverished Communities have project selected
  • 12 Phased Projects were selected (7 Flood Control, 1 Wildfire, 1 Utility and Infrastructure Protection, one Relocation, one Stabilization and restoration, and one Floodproofing)
  • 12 Flood Control Projects were selected
  • 4 Utility and Infrastructure Protection Projects were selected
  • 2 Relocation Projects were selected
  • And 1 of each of the following were selected:
    • Elevation (Roadway)
    • Floodproofing
    • Safe Room/Shelter
    • Wildfire

• For FY 2020 FEMA selected 272 Capability and Capacity Building Activities for $36.72 million and 65 are projects with total project costs of $766.1 million.
  • Also under Capability and Capacity Building Activities, FEMA selected 12 building code activities to support efforts in increasing community resiliency.
• All of the projects selected under the national competition came from applicants that had mandatory statewide adopted building codes of either the 2015 or 2018 International Building Code (IBC®) and International Residential Code.
• Also, under the national competition 18 out of the 22 projects selected include nature-based solutions into the mitigation projects.

• FEMA is committed to delivering our programs with equity, and this increase in applications from small, impoverished communities is an encouraging sign.
• A small impoverished community is a community of 3,000 or fewer individuals identified by the Applicant that is economically disadvantaged, with residents having an average per capita annual income not exceeding 80% of the national per capita income, based on best available data.
• Of the 991 BRIC submissions, FEMA received subapplications from 98 small and impoverished communities. After further review, 75 were found eligible not including management costs.
• FEMA selected 46 project subapplications, 36 under the Tribal Set Aside, 8 under the Allocation, and 2 under the national competition.
• From 2005 to 2019, small impoverished communities represented an average of about 6% of all subapplications submitted each year. For FY20, the number of small impoverished submissions represents about 9.3% of all non-management cost subapplications submitted.

BRIC Non-Financial Direct Technical Assistance

• FEMA in consultation with applicants will deliver Direct Technical Assistance to eight communities across the nation selected from letters of interest submitted from communities. All the FEMA regions who submitted at least one letter of interest will receive Direct Technical Assistance. Letters of interest were received from all but two regions (2 and 6). 
• FEMA may prioritize Direct Technical Assistance for communities that:
  • Have not received a project award under Pre-Disaster Mitigation, FMA or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program within the past 5 years
  • Have not received an Advance Assistance or Capability- and Capacity-Building subaward under BRIC, PDM, FMA or HMGP within the past 5 years
  • Are Tribal governments
  • Are designated as small impoverished
  • Have demonstrated a compelling need (e.g., communities with significant social vulnerability, communities with multiple major disaster declarations within the past 5 years, etc.)
• FEMA’s provision of Direct Technical Assistance will depend on its ability to perform the requested services. Should the demand for the services exceed FEMA’s organizational capacity, FEMA may refer the community to other technical assistance offerings.

Wildfire Mitigation 

• To ensure states, local communities, tribes and territories have what they need to respond wildfires and have capacity to address mitigation, there is a renewed focus on building the capability to take advantage of mitigation funding offered by FEMA.
• One project that FEMA selected represents an innovative systems methodology to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The methodology works simultaneously at large wildland and neighborhood scales to build more resilient communities.
• The total project cost is $49.3 million. FEMA estimates that 4,103 structures will opt into the defensible program that provides cost-share to property owners to implement defensible space and ignition resistant construction activities.
• The project would also fund hazardous fuels reduction activities across 5,410 acres within three proposed project areas. The number of structures protected by hazardous fuels reduction activities is estimated to be 6,498.

FY 2020 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Subapplicant Status

The below table lists the submitted planning and project subapplications and the status of each alphabetically by applicant.