More than $191 million in Southern California projects to reduce risks from floods, fires, earthquakes and landslides is caught in a backlog of federal disaster-prevention grants, according to FEMA data cited by CBS News.
The projects rely on FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, known as BRIC. California emergency management sources told CBS that no pending BRIC projects in the state had received approval this year, despite the program’s return, and that payments for projects already awarded funding were moving slowly.
A federal judge ordered FEMA to continue BRIC in spring 2026 after California and 19 other states sued over its cancellation. The administration had ended the program in March 2025.
National backlog includes undecided applications
A September 2026 report by the Government Accountability Office found that 700 BRIC applications, worth about $2.2 billion, had not received a decision as of March 2025. That figure refers to applications awaiting award decisions, not a total of approved grants left unpaid. The GAO report also said FEMA awarded no new grants and committed no funds between April 2025 and March 2026.
California has more pending projects than any other state, CBS reported. Among them is a $15 million flood-control project in San Bernardino County, first submitted in 2022. The county said the project is in design and remains within its expected allocation, adding that it is prepared to move into construction once funding arrives.
In Orange County, FEMA funding of $9,377,094 is expected to support the construction phase of a project to protect Capistrano Beach with an elevated berm and vegetated sand dunes. That phase is scheduled to begin next year. The county received a separate $2.4 million Ocean Protection Council grant in October to supplement, not replace, the federal funding.
GAO official Chris Currie said rising labor and construction costs had made some delayed projects significantly more expensive, while some communities had abandoned projects. He warned that delays leave the risks the projects were designed to reduce unchanged.
FEMA’s executive director of financial management and systems, Jeffrey Bobich, wrote to GAO on September 2 that the agency was exploring ways to streamline applications and speed reviews while maintaining oversight. FEMA had not responded to CBS’s request for comment.