Communities across Vermont that are trying to prepare for future floods have lost a key source of federal funding.
The Trump administration announced last week that it鈥檚 canceling a disaster preparedness program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Stephanie Smith, the state Hazard Mitigation Officer, said Vermont will lose out on the $2 million it received annually from the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities fund.
She said the cancellation will also affect $2.7 million in funding that FEMA had awarded to about 40 projects in past years but had not yet been paid out.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely disappointing,鈥� Smith said.
More from 开云体育: Tracking changes to federal funds in Vermont under the Trump administration
Smith said her office is still working to determine whether it will backfill the federal cuts with state funding.
鈥淲e do have some state funding to do hazard mitigation activities where my hope is to fill that gap if we need to, but then that also means we can鈥檛 use that funding to do other work,鈥� she said.
Over the past five years, FEMA鈥檚 so-called BRIC program has allocated about $200 million annually for hazard mitigation projects such as flood control, infrastructure improvements and streambank stabilization. Smith said most municipalities in Vermont have used the money to update local hazard mitigation plans and conduct scoping studies.
She said Vermont was poised to submit competitive grant applications that would have seen the state draw down even more money from the BRIC program this year.
鈥淲e had at least a few million dollars鈥� worth of infrastructure work that we were going to be applying for,鈥� Smith said.
A spokesperson for FEMA said in a statement that the BRIC program 鈥渨as yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program.鈥�
