Federal climate grant program favors large states, leaving smaller regions struggling for disaster preparedness funding.

A federal climate grant program, Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), has been monopolized by five large states, which together have collected half of its money. This disparity has led to an uneven disbursement of government funding, leaving poorer regions with less financial help to prepare for intensifying disasters. Meanwhile, smaller states such as Mississippi and West Virginia have not collected millions of dollars set aside for them, ignoring the government’s offer of free money for climate-related infrastructure projects. The program, which awards money through competitions that often favor large, affluent jurisdictions, has become a warning sign as the federal government distributes tens of billions of dollars in new climate-resilience money. California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and Washington state have together received $2 billion, or half of the money allocated through BRIC since 2021. However, 24 smaller states have altogether been awarded less than 5 percent of BRIC funding.