NC sues FEMA after agency cut $200 million for infrastructure ravaged by recent flooding

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson sued the Federal Emergency Management Administration on Wednesday over its decision to cancel a program that provides more than $200 million to protect North Carolina’s infrastructure, including water and sewer services devastated by recent storms.

Jackson’s announcement about the FEMA lawsuit included a list of canceled grants in North Carolina. He’s seeking to get the money reinstated as quickly as possible, he said. The Atlatnic hurricane season is underway and will last through November.

“We’re asking the court to treat this as an emergency,” Jackson told WRAL News in an interview. “We want them to make a decision within a matter of weeks.”

Earlier this week Jackson also sued Trump over a separate decision to withhold nearly $170 million in public school funding from North Carolina. And in a separate lawsuit earlier this year he and other Democratic attorneys general persuaded a federal judge to stop Trump from taking back grants for medical and scientific research. That lawsuit has so far kept more than $1 billion in research grants flowing to North Carolina universities and businesses.

Some of the canceled emergency grants in North Carolina include:

• Salisbury was awarded $22.5 million to relocate its pump station along the Yadkin River to higher ground so it can be safely accessed during storms to maintain a drinking water supply. A release from Jackson’s office states that the existing pump station often gets flooded and can be surrounded by water for days at a time after a storm. The city had invested $3 million in local funds for this project before it was canceled.

• Hillsborough was awarded nearly $7 million to relocate its pump station out of a flood plain, expand its water and sewer capacity, maintain emergency water connections with Jordan Lake and other water reservoirs. The river pump station recently flooded due to Tropical Depression Chantal. It prevented the town from being able to treat its wastewater.

• Gastonia was awarded $5.9 million to restore the banks of Duharts Creek and relocate sewer lines to prevent floodwater damage.

• Mount Pleasant was selected to receive more than $4 million to improve stormwater drainage and secure electrical wires to greatly reduce the risk of losing electric and telecommunications services during storms and floods.

• Leland was selected to receive $1.1 million to relocate the town’s sewer system away from Sturgeon Creek, which Jackson’s office said often floods after storms and natural disasters.

“Here’s what this is all about,” Jackson said. “It’s a lot of money to North Carolina.”

WRAL News asked why he believes FEMA’s decision is unlawful.

“The legal case is pretty straightforward. This was not FEMA’s money to cancel,” Jackson said. “This was Congress’s money.

“They appropriated these funds. A lot of localities in North Carolina have started to spend money in advance on the assumption that these funds were going to arrive because they were told those funds would arrive. And frankly, FEMA doesn’t have the authority now to pull the rug.”

WRAL News reached out to FEMA’s North Carolina office about the lawsuit and about canceling the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities [BRIC] grant program. In an email to WRAL News on Monday, a FEMA spokesperson wrote that the agency was preparing a response.

Trump, during his first term in office, created the same BRIC program he’s now seeking to cut — part of the GOP’s effort to slash government spending in order to help pay for some of the large tax cuts Trump signed into law earlier this month. His second-term administration called the grants “wasteful and ineffective” when announcing their termination in April.

The town of Hillsborough had been awarded $6.82 million for the resilient regional water supply project and the river pumping station relocation.

“The impact of Tropical Storm Chantal on the river pump station is exactly the type of scenario that BRIC grants were intended to protect the public against,” Hillsborough Mayor Mark Bell told WRAL News.

On Wednesday night, Hillsborough town leaders are planning to meet to discuss how to pay for storm damage after Tropical Storm Chantal.

Orange County estimates damage from Chantal will cost more than $30 million. Preliminary figures from Orange County leaders estimate $9.1 million in damages to 123 residential properties and public damages totaling $22.6 million.

WRAL News asked Jackson why he believes FEMA does not have the authority to pull the BRIC program.

“Congress controls the purse and Congress told FEMA, ‘Here’s money and here’s how we want you to spend it,’” Jackson said. “And when Congress says that in a very specific way, the department then doesn’t get to override Congress.

“If that were allowed to happen, then you would have all of these departments with their own political agendas undermining Congress all the time. The Constitution doesn’t allow that to occur.”

Jackson is joined in filing this lawsuit by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the governor of Pennsylvania. 

Jackson said his lawsuit is nonpartisan and he thinks “we have a strong legal case.”

Jackson’s lawsuit comes after a bipartisan letter led by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican who represents much of western North Carolina, and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, urging FEMA to reinstate the funds.

WRAL’s Will Doran and Ashley Rowe also contributed to this story.