(The Center Square) – Enforcement of an earlier court order instructing FEMA to reinstate $200 million to North Carolina’s infrastructure program is being sought in litigation with other states by first-term Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson.
The case, known as State of Washington, et. al. v. Federal Emergency Management Agency, was won by plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Judge Richard Stearns’ ruling included reinstatement of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities disaster mitigation program in North Carolina.
The program is more colloquially known as BRIC.
“The court was clear when it ruled on this case in December,” Jackson said. “FEMA already broke the law once and lost in court. It cannot be allowed to continue evading the law. Towns and cities are waiting for the money they’re owed so they can be ready for the next storm.”
Tuesday marks 69 days since Stearns’ order.
Examples of the cities and projects are Salisbury, a $22.5 million relocation of a pump station on the Yadkin River; Hillsborough, a $7 million project to relocate a pump station out of a flood plain; and Gastonia, a $5.9 million project to restore the banks of the Duharts Creek to prevent floodwater damage.
The court order instructs FEMA to “promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination of the BRIC program.”
In addition to Washington and North Carolina, other state attorneys general a part of the filing Tuesday included Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin; the district attorney in the District of Columbia; and governors in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
