Senator Reverend Warnock pressed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to reinstate a $30 million flood reduction grant for coastal Georgia that was canceled by the Trump admin earlier this year

Senator Reverend Warnock: “eliminating BRIC, FEMA’s most comprehensive disaster mitigation and preparedness program, and proposing cuts to Flood Mitigation Assistance funding for 2025 strips Georgia communities of the tools they need to save lives.”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is escalating his fight to reinstate the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which supports local disaster mitigation projects. The program supported a $30 million award to Savannah for flood reduction measures that was canceled earlier this year. 

The Senator first joined joined a bipartisan effort to demand the Trump administration reinstate the program in May of this year. Senator Warnock is renewing his efforts to pressure the Trump administration to reinstate the flood prevention grant following deadly flooding in Texas which claimed the lives of over 130 people. 

“Just last month, catastrophic flooding in Texas claimed the lives of at least 130 people…These deadly floods tragically demonstrate why the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate a $30 million Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant to reduce flooding in Savannah, Georgia— a fully approved project designed to save lives in one of the Southeast’s most vulnerable coastal cities— is all the more difficult to understand,” wrote Senator Warnock.

Senator Warnock also asked Secretary Noem to commit to ensuring that FEMA’s Region IV office in Atlanta, which oversees disaster response for all of Georgia and much of the southeast, remains fully staffed and resourced for the 2025 hurricane season. In June, Senator Warnock pressed Secretary Noem for answers on cuts to disaster response after leaked internal assessments revealed that FEMA is unprepared for the current storm season that began on June 1. The Senator’s latest effort comes as Secretary Noem has failed to substantively respond to any of the Senator’s inquiries.

This is Senator Warnock’s latest effort to ensure that FEMA has the resources needed to protect Georgians from natural disasters and assist with recovery. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Senator Warnock led a bipartisan, bicameral effort to secure billions of dollars in federal funding for disaster recovery efforts in Georgia. The Senator also introduced bipartisan legislation to extend the tax deadline for Georgians impacted by Hurricane Helene and other natural disasters.

Full text of the letter can be found HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Noem,

I write to urge you to provide assurances to the people of Georgia that the Trump administration is willing and able to support them during the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. Unfortunately, your July 11, 2025 response to my June 5, 2025 letter failed to provide information about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) current disaster preparedness capabilities or address the potentially devastating effects that efforts to dismantle FEMA will have on Georgians. The stakes are too high to leave the communities I care about without clear answers, a sense of accountability, or a plan, so I write again to seek answers, particularly in light of recent deadly flooding across the country.

We are now well into what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects will be an above-average hurricane season, and yet you have neither clarified why an internal agency review determined that “FEMA is not ready,” nor explained how FEMA will respond if the Southeast faces another catastrophic storm like Hurricane Helene. This lack of transparency heightens public anxiety and erodes public confidence in our emergency systems at a time when Georgia families are looking to their government for clarity and direction. The residents of Georgia and other coastal states deserve to know whether their government is prepared to support them in the face of disaster. If the actions of this administration have rendered FEMA unable to fulfill its mission, then our state and local governments deserve to know, so they can prepare to provide life saving aid where the Trump administration will not.

Just last month, catastrophic flooding in Texas claimed the lives of at least 130 people. This heartbreaking loss of life illustrates how quickly disasters can overwhelm state and local capacity and why a strong federal response is essential. These deadly floods tragically demonstrate why the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate a $30 million Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant to reduce flooding in Savannah, Georgia—a fully approved project designed to save lives in one of the Southeast’s most vulnerable coastal cities—is all the more difficult to understand. Your refusal to reinstate funding for Savannah, Georgia to mitigate flood risks and potentially save lives, coupled with your unwillingness thus far to articulate a clear plan for FEMA’s capabilities or future, continues to run afoul of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) statutory mission to protect all Americans. Your job is to keep Americans safe here at home, and thus far, you are falling short of this sacred duty. Your response to my June 5, 2025 letter pointed to the President’s establishment of the Council to Assess FEMA, which you co-chair, as a justification for proposed and implemented changes. This Council is responsible for conducting “a full-scale review of FEMA,” developing recommendations, and producing a report by November 16, 2025, just two weeks before hurricane season officially ends. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has already proposed and implemented dramatic, top-down changes to FEMA’s staffing, budget, and policies, long before this Council has even issued a single recommendation. That disconnect raises serious questions about whether this process is truly driven by evidence and stakeholder engagement.

In your response, you also said that FEMA must be “survivor-centric.” I agree, but being survivor-centric means investing in our communities before disaster strikes to improve the chances of survival. Pre-disaster mitigation is the most survivor-centric policy we have, and eliminating BRIC—FEMA’s most comprehensive disaster mitigation and preparedness program—and proposing cuts to Flood Mitigation Assistance funding for 2025 strips Georgia communities of the tools they need to save lives. Moreover, telling local governments to “use existing grant funding” for first responder training is no substitute for a serious disaster management strategy. As any disaster response expert will tell you: what we do before the storm is just as, if not more, important as what we do after. Instead, your changes undermine the very foundation of a survivor-centric approach.

While I remain concerned that the Trump administration’s recent decisions are jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of Georgians as they prepare to weather the next storm, I am committed to engaging in good faith with you and the entire Trump administration on disaster mitigation, response, and reform. In fact, I welcome thoughtful, transparent reforms developed in close partnership with Congress, states, and local officials. But serious accountability requires serious answers. Your response, which offered little in the way of concrete information or assurances that the constituents we both represent deserve from their government, only reinforced my concern that this administration is making critical decisions without adequate public explanation or engagement while Georgians’ lives are on the line.

Please find attached my original questions, along with new questions made more urgent by the terrible situation in Texas. I respectfully request a full, substantive response—including data, documentation, and justification—by September 6, 2025:

1. In light of recent deadly flooding in Texas, will DHS commit to reinstating the $30 million BRIC grant awarded to the City of Savannah?

1. If not, how does FEMA justify eliminating a fully approved, life-saving mitigation project in one of the Southeast’s most flood-prone cities?
2. Please provide a cost-benefit analysis supporting the cancellation of the BRIC program and awarded projects like Savannah, Georgia’s flood reduction measures, including how such cancellations make communities like Savannah more resilient and safer in the event of a severe storm.

2. If the genuine purpose of the Council is to determine whether FEMA’s current structure serves the American people, why is DHS already gutting FEMA before the Council has completed its work?

Questions from my June 5, 2025 letter:

3. How would a budget cut of $646 million, as proposed in your FY26 budget request, help FEMA better prepare for and respond to future disasters in Georgia?

1. What analyses did DHS conduct to ensure that these budget cuts will not diminish the safety of Americans during hurricane season?

4. Of the FEMA employees who were terminated or accepted voluntary buyouts, how many performed a hurricane preparedness, logistic, or safety function, including those who collaborated with state and local governments before, during, and after a disaster?

5. What analyses, if any, has DHS conducted to assess the impact of implemented and proposed workforce reductions on FEMA’s ability to perform its emergency management functions? Please provide copies of any written communications, analyses, and other documentation concerning how workforce reductions will limit FEMA’s ability to carry out its core functions.

6. How many counties in Georgia that received federal assistance in the aftermath of previous disasters would have been denied that assistance if FEMA’s proposal to

quadruple the damage threshold had been implemented prior to those disasters? Please provide a list of affected disasters and Georgia counties, including how much federal

disaster assistance would have been lost by each county under FEMA’s new proposed threshold.

1. What public process or consultation, if any, did FEMA conduct before proposing an increase to the per capita impact indicator threshold?

7. What contingency plans are in place if FEMA staff and resources are overwhelmed during the 2025 hurricane season?

8. Are there plans to further adjust or reduce staffing at FEMA’s Region IV office in Atlanta, Georgia, which oversees disaster response for all of Georgia and much of the southeast?

1. Will you commit to ensuring this office remains fully staffed and resourced for the duration of the 2025 hurricane season?