FEMA's restarted BRIC program sets aside $81 million for building code adoption under the FY2024-25 NOFO

FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program resumed on 25 March 2026 after a federal court ordered its restart, releasing a combined FY2024-25 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that makes $1 billion in federal funding available to states, local governments, territories, and Tribal Nations for hazard mitigation activities. Within that total, $81 million is reserved specifically for building code adoption and enforcement activities through a dedicated Building Code Plus-Up set-aside - a direct signal that code adoption remains central to the program's scoring and eligibility framework.

The NOFO is a federal-level instrument. It binds states, territories, and federally recognized tribal governments as applicants; local governments and special districts participate as subapplicants through their state hazard mitigation offices. The application window ran from 25 March to 23 July 2026.

What the Building Code Plus-Up funds

The $81 million code set-aside is divided into two streams:

• State/Territory Building Code Plus-Up - $56 million, capped at $1 million per applicant, for code adoption and enforcement activities at the state or territory level.
• Tribal Building Code Plus-Up - $25 million, for federally recognized tribal governments pursuing equivalent activities.

Eligible activities under the Plus-Up include acquiring code publications, training and certifying code officials, and developing professional workforce capabilities related to building codes^[1]. Building code adoption activities must be based on the International Building Code (IBC) or International Residential Code (IRC) published by the International Code Council, using one of the two most recently published editions.^[1] The statutory authority is Section 1234 of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, which amended Section 203 of the Stafford Act to expressly permit BRIC funding for "the latest published editions of relevant consensus-based codes, specifications, and standards."

The remaining $1 billion breaks down as follows:

• National Competition: $757 million (maximum $20 million federal share per project)
• State/Territory set-aside: $112 million (maximum $2 million per applicant)
• Tribal government set-aside: $50 million

Building code adoption as a scoring criterion

Beyond the Plus-Up set-aside, the NOFO treats strong code adoption as a competitive advantage across the full $1 billion pool. The FY2024-25 NOFO retains the program's core priority of emphasizing cost-effective mitigation projects in jurisdictions with strong building code adoption and enforcement, and applicants that have achieved a Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) rating of 1 to 5 receive additional points in the National Competition scoring. Jurisdictions that have not previously received BRIC funding are also prioritized through bonus points.

FEMA's own research supports this weighting. The agency's Building Codes Save: A Nationwide Losses Avoided Study estimated annual savings of $1.6 billion in communities that have adopted the IBC and IRC since those codes were first published in 2000, and calculated that approximately $27 billion in losses from earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes have been avoided since 2000 in states that adopted various editions of those codes.^[2] NAHB has noted that the study does not fully account for the incremental construction costs associated with newer code editions^[2] - a point relevant to jurisdictions weighing the cost-benefit of adoption ahead of any future BRIC cycle.

The program's legal and funding history

FEMA terminated BRIC in April 2025, stating that approximately $882 million in IIJA-appropriated funding would be returned to the Treasury. A federal court ruled that termination unlawful, and on 6 March 2026 issued an enforcement order directing FEMA to restart the program within specific timelines. FEMA issued the combined FY2024-25 NOFO on 25 March 2026 - 19 days after the enforcement order.

Between FY2020 and FY2023, FEMA obligated approximately $1 billion in federal funding through BRIC out of roughly $4.6 billion in selected awards. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriated an additional $1 billion for the program, adding $200 million for each of FY2022 through FY2026. The Congressional Research Service reported that FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund showed $5.075 billion available for BRIC as of its most recent monthly report.

The FY2024-25 NOFO makes several structural changes from prior cycles: phased projects are no longer eligible, the National Competition scoring system has been simplified, and capability- and capacity-building activities are now limited to those directly tied to infrastructure resilience - with building code adoption and enforcement explicitly carved out as a permitted exception.^[3]

Who is affected and what to watch

The Plus-Up and the broader NOFO bind state and territorial building and emergency management agencies, as well as local building and fire departments that apply through their states. Trades directly affected include those working on public infrastructure - structural, civil, and mechanical contractors whose projects may be funded through BRIC mitigation awards, and code officials whose training and certification costs are now explicitly reimbursable.

The July 23, 2026 federal application deadline has passed. Jurisdictions that missed this cycle should monitor FEMA's BRIC page for the FY2026 NOFO, which has not yet been announced. Whether Congress appropriates additional BRIC funding beyond the IIJA's FY2026 tranche - and whether FEMA issues a standalone FY2026 NOFO or again combines fiscal years - remains to be determined. The authority having jurisdiction for any compliance or eligibility question is the relevant State Hazard Mitigation Officer or FEMA Regional Office.