Doubling Down on Investment – FEMA’s FY 2022 BRIC Cycle

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is preparing its third grant cycle for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, providing more than twice the funding since the previous year. The fiscal year (FY) 2022 cycle of FEMA’s pre-disaster mitigation program will provide $2.295 billion in grants to states, tribes and territories through both competitive process and formula awards for planning and capability and capacity building (C&CB).  

Incentivizing building code adoption and implementation is not only a priority for the agency but also aligns with the recently announced White House National Initiative to Advance Building Codes. FEMA identifies “increase[ing] funding to applicants that facilitate the adoption and enforcement of the latest published editions of building codes” as one of three priorities for this year’s program.”

Code-related projects are eligible as a C&CB activity, which state, territorial, and tribal governments can fund through formula funding. Doubling last year’s funding, FY 2022 will allocate $122 million to states and territories ($2 million per state/territory) that can be used for C&CB activities, as well as, $50 million for tribal governments (subject to a $2 million C&CB cap per tribal applicant).  

Also, new this year, FEMA is expanding non-financial Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) to at least 40 communities to build capacity and capability at the local level. FEMA can provide assistance with code adoption and implementation through DTA. Governments of any type/size can apply and do not need to go through their states.  Requests for DTA can be made via web form directly on the FEMA website beginning on September 30, 2022, and will be accepted until the close of the grant cycle on January 27, 2023, at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.  

To date, the BRIC program is set to fund nearly $4 million in code-related projects. In FY 2020, approximately $2.25 million went to 16 code projects representing sub-applicants from 11 states, four tribal communities, and one U.S. territory. The FY 2021 awards are set to provide another $1.67 million for seven code adoption and enforcement projects.   

The awards represent investments in training and certification opportunities, and broader disaster assessment training through the International Code Council’s When Disaster Strikes Institute. Additionally, two FY 2020 grants were awarded for building department accreditation. The FY 2021 awards will primarily support code adoptions. 

Codes are also important to the competition-based portion of the BRIC program, which funds brick-and-mortar mitigation projects such as hardening critical infrastructure. FEMA ranks competitive applications on a point system comprised of qualitative and technical evaluation criteria, with the latter providing two opportunities to earn points for codes. Full credit (20-points) is given for statewide adoption and enforcement of one of the two most recent editions (2018/2021) of the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Residential Code (IRC), with partial credit (10-points) given to states on the 2015 IBC and IRC. A Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) rating between one and five will make the application more competitive, providing 20-points out of the 115-point total.

The 2022 BRIC Notice of Funding Opportunity is now available. FEMA will begin accepting applications on Sept. 30, 2022, though many states are already accepting pre-applications and set much earlier internal deadlines. 

Register here by August 31 for a FREE BRIC grant writing boot camp hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies.     

The Code Council has and will continue to post information on the process here.