Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities FY 2021 Subapplication and Selection Status

Subapplication Summary

Selected Subapplications

Highlights

Status by State

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program provides proactive investment in resilience for communities are better prepared and remain resilient prior to a hurricane, flood or wildfire. BRIC provides funds annually for hazard mitigation planning and projects to reduce risk of damage before a disaster.

On August 1, FEMA announced the 53 projects selected from the national competition applications received. In addition, on May 19, FEMA announced the BRIC Round 1 selections for the tribal set-aside and the state and territory allocations.  

This announcement is not an award. The information below summarizes the status of all subapplications submitted, including a table showing Subapplications by State, submitted for this grant cycle.

FEMA made $1.16 billion available for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant programs in fiscal year 2021.

The breakdown of available funding for fiscal year 2021 includes $1 billion for BRIC and $160 million for Flood Mitigation Assistance.

For the BRIC program, this includes an increase in set-aside grants for tribes—from $20 million to $25 million. The state and territory allocation also increased from $600,000 per applicant to $1 million per applicant for a total of $56 million in available funds.

In Fiscal Year 2021,FEMA selected projects from 19 states, including the District of Columbia, across all 10 FEMA Regions. The selected  projects have met the basic eligibility requirements and will enter the next phase of the awards review process. FEMA will provide funding through these selections for states, local communities, and District of Columbia for larger more complex infrastructure projects.

View full summaries of all competitive BRIC selections.

These selection announcements are not awards. FEMA will work with applicants “Identified for Further Review” to conduct programmatic reviews of the selected subapplications before making a final decision for funding. 

The data shown below represents a summary of the subapplications. The table below lists additional information about subapplications by state.

For the subapplications identified for further review for the BRIC National Competition, 49% ($455.8 million) of the funding will be delivered to communities that meet one or more Justice40 interim criteria. Overall, for the Fiscal Year 2021 BRIC selections, FEMA achieved delivering nearly 50% of grant funding to disadvantaged communities.

As in previous years, BRIC and Flood Mitigation Assistance funding requests exceeded the amounts available for Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs. This trend shows the need for more funding to reduce hazards in the United States.

FEMA received 788 subapplications for BRIC funding of which 369 have been selected for further review as part of the state and tribal set-aside.

Through the National Competition, FEMA selected 53 large competitive projects based on the highest composite score until the funding amount available had been reached.

For fiscal year 2021, FEMA received applications for $4.16 billion in federal cost share. The total proposed project costs exceeded $6.44 billion.

In this grant cycle, 56 states and territories applied for BRIC. Of these, 12 states submitted projects that totaled more than $50 million or more in federal cost share funding.

Four states submitted projects with over $200 million federal cost share funding: California, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia.

FEMA received 72 subapplications from tribes requesting an estimated $27.95 million in federal cost share funding.

States, territories and tribes submitted applications in the following categories: Capability and Capacity Building Activities and Mitigation Projects.

The 20 communities selected to receive non-financial Direct Technical Assistance through BRIC represent five tribal governments, one territory and 15 states. Of the communities selected 17 out of 20 are disadvantaged communities, six of which are Economically Disadvantaged Rural Communities (EDRC).

From the previous year, subapplication requests for federal funding for Capability and Capacity Building Activities increased by 49%. These investments build a basis for future successful grant applications and projects.

The technical assistance that FEMA provides through BRIC grants can also help communities build applications to other funding sources. Over time, this can help diversify their funding options.

Building capacity takes time. The growth in requests in this funding area shows that communities value this support from FEMA.

Tribes who submitted subapplications in fiscal year 2021 requested significantly more funds in this grant cycle. Tribal applicants requested a total of $3.18 million to support applying building codes and standards, included modern building codes, and developing new plans. Compared to fiscal year 2020, tribal requests increased by 124%.

This includes data from state and territory allocations and set-aside for tribes.

Uses of BRIC Assistance	Number of Subapplications Selected	Total Amount of Federal Cost Share
Mitigation Projects	87	$814.96 million
Capability and Capacity Building Activities	220	$40.37 million
Management Costs	62	$138.14 million
Direct Technical Assistance	20	N/A
Totals	389	$993.47 million

There are various types of projects eligible for BRIC funding. The lists below reflect the top five project types by federal cost share requested and the number of subapplications requested and the number of subapplications (not including Management Costs).

1. Flood Control = $1.39 billion
2. Utility/Infrastructure Protection = $1.26 billion
3. Stabilization and Restoration = $219 million
4. Mitigation Reconstruction = $101 million
5. Retrofits = $100 million

1. Flood Control = 144 subapplications
2. Project Scoping (Engineering, Environmental, Feasibility and/or Benefit-Cost Analysis) = 125 subapplications
3. Utility/Infrastructure Protection = 109 subapplications
4. Plan Update = 61 subapplications
5. Safe Room/Shelters = 32 subapplications

The BRIC program is one of several federal agency programs participating in Justice40, a Biden-Harris Administration initiative to prioritize federal investments benefitting disadvantaged communities. The Fiscal Year 2021 grant cycle focused on advancing support and access for underserved communities.

FEMA set a baseline to achieving the Justice40 Initiative goals which prioritize delivering at least 40% of the overall benefits to disadvantaged communities. This year FEMA established a baseline within the BRIC and Flood Mitigation Assistance grant programs to achieve that goal and will continue to build on the work we have done to ensure equitable outcomes.

FEMA anticipates continued coordination with the Biden Administration and other federal agencies with Justice40 covered programs. Examples of FEMA's commitment to prioritize equity include:

• Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC): City of Gastonia, North Carolina: Duharts Creek is located along the east side of the city. Frequent, increasingly severe, rain events have left the area vulnerable to flooding and has caused significant erosion along the banks. This federal grant funding will restore the stream, stabilize the creek bank and realign critical water and power infrastructure. This design approach emphasizes nature-based solutions and materials with several recommendations including bank regrading, natural-fiber erosion control matting and native plantings. The goal is to reduce the severity of erosion and encroachment from future flood events. These efforts will be completed in two phases. Phase one includes notice of grant award, preliminary design, permitting, and final design. Phase two will include bidding and construction.
• Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC): Kern County, California: Kern County has almost 840,000 people impacted by repetitive years of drought. By upgrading pipelines and pump stations, the county can add storage for 30,000 acre-feet of potable water in a naturally occurring aquifer located below ground and will add production wells for water extraction during droughts. A value-add for this project is culturally appropriate and income-sensitive water conservation guidance, resource information, and community meetings that will be created to meet the unique and specific needs of the three benefiting communities.

In comparing data and statistics to the fiscal year 2020 grant cycle, the BRIC program expanded selections and made improvements.

• FEMA made more selections across all 10 FEMA regions, including 53 states and territories, the District of Columbia and 27 tribes.
  • Twelve states, or 63% of all states, will be first time recipients for competitive BRIC selections
  • Competitive project subapplication success rate increased from 4% to 14% in FY21
  • Nineteen states received BRIC Competitive Grant Funds in FY21 versus 10 states in FY20 (90% increase)
  • Most states that received BRIC Competitive funds in both years saw an annual increase in their competitive funds as well
• Non-coastal states will receive more than 20% of funding in the competitive selection.
  • The states of Wisconsin and Wyoming were competitive this year even without state-level building code points. This demonstrates that applications can be competitive without state-level building codes points in years with high amounts of available funding.
  • The projects selected for this BRIC grant cycle will invest in mitigation in a variety of ways and demonstrate FEMA’s commitment to equity and the equitable distribution of project selections around the nation.

The below table shows each subapplication status by state.  For this grant cycle, FEMA made two announcements.  In May, the status of subapplication selections for the Non-Financial Direct Technical Assistance communities, tribal set-aside and the state and territory allocations were announced.  In August, FEMA announced the national competition selections for BRIC.

View further explanation of the status descriptions.