FEMA can’t spare $33 million to help California prep for earthquakes? Hogwash | Opinion
For years, residents of quake-prone California have been warned to get ready for the Big One. With that in mind, wouldn’t it make sense to invest in a program to strengthen buildings that are most in danger of collapsing in a major earthquake?
We believe so, and we suspect that most Californians would agree. But not the Trump administration.
It canceled $33 million in grants to California to upgrade “soft-story” buildings — typically older, wood-frame apartments with carports on the ground floor — that are especially vulnerable. The money could have upgraded as many as 1,500 apartment buildings in multiple counties. But under the leadership of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided it cannot spare even $33 million.
To put that in perspective, the elaborate June 14 military parade requested by President Donald Trump will cost an estimated $45 million. For a parade.
Fire and flood grants also canceled
The retrofit grants for California were allocated under the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which also funded flood control projects, wildfire prevention and public infrastructure improvements — until now.
In April, FEMA canceled the entire program, which was established in 2021 and promised to deliver $1 billion to communities throughout the U.S. over five years. Yanking that funding was an affront to communities across the nation that may now have no way to pay for projects that could, literally, save lives.
California alone has lost hundreds of millions in aid that had already been allocated, including $110 million in fire prevention grants awarded to Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties and $50 million to the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency, to reinforce a section of the Sutter Bypass levee in the Central Valley.
It’s an ironic turn of events, given that President Donald Trump established the program during his first term in office. But Trump 2.0 has nothing good to say about BRIC — likely due to President Joe Biden’s insistence that it address climate change during his years in office.
Apparently, that was a kiss of death; in a statement released last month, the administration described BRIC as “another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program.”
“It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” the statement continued. “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need.”
What nonsense. There is nothing “political” about strengthening apartment buildings to prevent them from collapsing in an earthquake, as has happened before in California. In the 1994 Northridge earthquake, for example, 16 people died when a single apartment complex collapsed.
FEMA now seems focused solely on disaster response and recovery, rather than helping to prevent or at least minimize losses. That’s not “managing” an emergency. That’s showing up after the fact to help pick up the pieces.
Sen. Schiff asks Noem to release funds
To his credit, Sen. Adam Schiff recently wrote to Noem, asking that she reinstate the retrofit funding. He has yet to receive a response, and isn’t sure whether he will.
During a Friday meeting with McClatchy California editorial boards, Schiff pointed out that the loss of retrofit funds wasn’t the only blow to California. Flood control projects planned by the Army Corps of Engineers also were defunded, as were fire prevention projects.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the senator said. “The question is, is there anything that Congress can do without any Republican support and the answer is, probably not. We need Republicans to step up.”
They should, because this is not a red state or a blue state issue. This is a humanitarian issue that directly affects the entire nation.
Setting aside for a moment the callous disregard for public safety, canceling the program makes no economic sense. It’s far more cost effective to invest in prevention as opposed to rebuilding — something even FEMA has acknowledged.
“A dollar spent on mitigation saves society an average of four dollars … for all hazard types studied,” an undated FEMA fact sheet says.
If the Trump administration is serious about cutting costs, it would invest even more heavily in prevention measures instead of waiting for communities to be destroyed before unlocking FEMA funds.
It’s time for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to recognize that and work on restoring funding before it’s too late.
Otherwise, they should be prepared to look grieving constituents in the eye the next time a fire, flood, tornado or earthquake strikes one of their communities and explain why they did nothing to protect them.
This story was originally published May 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "FEMA can’t spare $33 million to help California prep for earthquakes? Hogwash | Opinion."