Scranton hopes a recent court-ordered reinstatement of a Federal Emergency Management Administration program eliminated last year by the Trump administration means restoration of city efforts to get $2.8 million for disaster relief and buyouts of 21 flood-prone properties that were swamped by flash floods in 2023.<\/p>\n
A federal judge recently ruled that FEMA\u2019s canceling in April of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) pre-disaster mitigation program was unlawful and ordered the restoration of the program.<\/p>\n
Before BRIC\u2019s elimination, Scranton had two funding applications totaling $2.8 million advancing, including $2.7 million to acquire and demolish 18 homes and three vacant lots on North Merrifield Avenue and Leggett, Mary and Jackson streets in the Keyser Valley and North Scranton areas that were rendered uninhabitable by the severe flash flooding event of Sept. 9, 2023; and $75,000 for updating building codes related to flooding and other hazardous events.<\/p>\n
But FEMA last year eliminated BRIC, which began under the first Trump administration in 2018. FEMA had said ending BRIC will help ensure grant funding aligns with Republican President Donald Trump\u2019s executive orders and then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s direction \u201cand best support states and local communities in disaster planning, response and recovery.\u201d FEMA\u2019s announcement of eliminating BRIC added, \u201cThe BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters. Under Secretary Noem\u2019s leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic-led coalition sues<\/p>\n
A coalition composed of 22 states, which includes Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., filed an injunction lawsuit in July in federal court to get BRIC restored. The coalition claimed the administration flouted Congress\u2019 authority and unlawfully nixed BRIC, which is FEMA\u2019s largest predisaster mitigation program. The lawsuit was led by Massachusetts and Washington and joined by Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. The governors of 21 of the states and the mayor of Washington, D.C., are all Democrats, while the governor of Vermont is a Republican.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 11 in federal court in Massachusetts, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns agreed with the coalition and ordered FEMA to restore BRIC. As the Trump administration did not identify any congressional act authorizing FEMA to abandon its mitigation duties, \u201cIt follows that the termination of the BRIC program was unlawful,\u201d Stearns ruled. At the time of BRIC\u2019s elimination, FEMA said BRIC funds not yet distributed would immediately return either to the Disaster Relief Fund or the U.S. Treasury. Stearns also determined that such shifting of funds amounted to unlawful repurposing and withholding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law, and the potential hardship accruing to the States in the absence of an injunction is great. The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives. It need not be gainsaid that the imminence of disasters is not deterred by bureaucratic obstruction,\u201d Stearns said in a summary judgment ruling. \u201cIn sum, this is not a case about judicial encroachment on the discretionary authority of the Executive Branch. This is a case about unlawful Executive encroachment on the prerogative of Congress to appropriate funds for a specific and compelling purpose, and no more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delays in implementation of the Dec. 11 order followed. On March 6, Stearns issued an enforcement order setting deadlines for certain actions, while at the same time acknowledging that some of the delays can be attributed to staffing shortages resulting from layoffs and a current budgetary freeze, as well as the process underway of appointing a new secretary and transition period. Trump fired Noem on March 5 amid mounting concerns and criticism, including from Democratic and Republican legislators, about her leadership of the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n
Scranton affected<\/p>\n
Scranton intended to pay for the $3.4 million total buyout cost using about $2.5 million of BRIC grant funding and $849,000 of city funds, as the city\u2019s portion was a 25% contribution. The flood-prone parcels were to have vacant, condemned homes demolished and the properties repurposed for floodplain restoration and green infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, who last year advocated for restoring BRIC or an equivalent funding source, greeted news of BRIC reinstatement with \u201ccautious celebration.\u201d It\u2019s still unclear whether the funding that was cut will be reinstated or if Scranton will have to reapply for eligibility, as FEMA remains impacted by a partial federal government shutdown, Cognetti said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m frustrated that this critical program was canceled in the first place. There has always been bipartisan support for BRIC because it saves lives, reduces risk, and helps communities recover. Disaster experts and emergency responders nationwide called its cancellation a dereliction of duty, and they were absolutely right,\u201d said Cognetti, who is a Democrat. \u201cThe program should never have been cut. This has been a frustrating and unnecessary waste of time for the American people and for municipal governments across the country that were doing the right thing to protect their residents, first responders, businesses, and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, of Dallas Twp., whose district includes includes all of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike counties and parts of Monroe and Luzerne counties, last year contradicted the Trump administration\u2019s contentions that BRIC was wasteful. In May, he also sponsored the \u201cSave BRIC Act\u201d in the U.S. House. On Wednesday, Bresnahan issued a statement applauding the restoration of BRIC while not mentioning the lawsuit by the coalition of states or the federal judge\u2019s rulings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis reversal is a direct result of sustained pressure from members of Congress who refused to let this program disappear,\u201d Bresnahan said in his statement. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the detrimental long-term effect natural disasters can have on small towns and cities, and without the necessary resources, that effect only gets worse. From the moment FEMA announced BRIC\u2019s cancellation, I made it clear that walking away from disaster mitigation was the wrong call. I pushed back, raised concerns directly with FEMA, and I introduced legislation to protect this program because communities in NEPA and across the country depend on it. This decision is a step in the right direction, and I will keep fighting to make sure these resources are delivered where they\u2019re needed most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton hopes a recent court-ordered reinstatement of a Federal Emergency Management Administration program eliminated last year by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[66431,36876,34,66432,40910,50177,66430,9057,66429,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-145638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-bric","tag-disaster-relief","tag-donald-trump","tag-federal-emergency-management-administration-program","tag-fema","tag-kristi-noem","tag-mitigation-program","tag-natural-disasters","tag-richard-stearns","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}