Baldwin Demands Trump Administration Reverse Abrupt Cancellation of Funding for Rural School Districts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) called on the Trump Administration to reverse its decision to terminate funding promised to Wisconsin school districts for their projects to keep communities safe. Specifically, Baldwin called for already-allocated resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which was established during the first Trump Administration, to be sent to Wisconsin school districts. The BRIC program helps keep communities safe and properly prepare for extreme weather by funding projects such as tornado-safe rooms in rural schools.

“This loss of promised funding poses a harmful setback for disaster mitigation in rural communities and wastes millions of dollars that communities have spent on local planning, engineering, and community outreach. I urge you to reverse FEMA’s decision to end the BRIC program and provide the funding that was promised to Wisconsin school districts to complete crucial mitigation projects that will keep our communities safe,” wrote Senator Baldwin in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

On April 4th, 2025, FEMA announced that it would end the BRIC program and canceled all BRIC applications from Fiscal Years 2020 to 2023. This decision affects numerous Wisconsin school districts and surrounding communities where there are shovel ready projects, including Cuba City, Potosi, Phillips, Birchwood, Alma Center-Humbird-Merrillan, Melrose-Mindoro, Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton, and others, who were relying on this funding for projects entirely focused on disaster safety.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Secretary Noem,

I write to urge you to reverse the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) decision to end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. This misguided action will put people’s lives at risk, including Wisconsinites in rural areas who recently learned that the funding school districts were promised for their community-driven projects would be terminated.

Established during the first Trump Administration, the BRIC program supports states, local governments and Tribal Nations reduce their hazard risk through mitigation projects. Funding for this vital program helps communities properly prepare for extreme weather events and saves money for disaster recovery efforts when these events occur.

On April 4, 2025, FEMA announced that it would end the BRIC program and cancel all BRIC applications from Fiscal Years 2020 to 2023. This decision affects numerous Wisconsin school districts and surrounding communities where there are shovel ready projects, including Cuba City, Potosi, Phillips, Birchwood, Alma Center-Humbird-Merrillan, Melrose-Mindoro, Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton and others. Despite the Administration’s claims that the BRIC program is “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters,” this accusation could not be further from the truth when it comes to Wisconsin projects. These community-driven projects are entirely focused on disaster safety, many involving tornado safe rooms in rural schools.

This loss of promised funding poses a harmful setback for disaster mitigation in rural communities and wastes millions of dollars that communities have spent on local planning, engineering, and community outreach. I urge you to reverse FEMA’s decision to end the BRIC program and provide the funding that was promised to Wisconsin school districts to complete crucial mitigation projects that will keep our communities safe.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.