FEMA Ordered to Pause Reallocation of Disaster Prevention Funds

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may not spend elsewhere a disaster prevention and mitigation program’s $4 billion fund while a lawsuit filed by state attorneys general is pending, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled.

The states are likely to succeed on the merits, and have shown they’re likely to be irreparably harmed if the government spends funds allocated to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program on other purposes, Judge Richard G. Stearns said.

“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” said Stearns, of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, granting the ...