FEMA Advisory

Fiscal Year 2020 Flood Mitigation Assistance and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Update

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On Jan. 29, 2021, the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY 2020) Hazard Mitigation Assistance application period closed. In early March, FEMA started the project selection process.  A total of $700 million is available is available for the two grant programs.  In addition, FEMA is preparing the Fiscal Year 2021 grant cycle.

FEMA Fact Sheet available online

For the Fiscal Year 2020 grant application cycle, FEMA received nearly $3.6 billion in applications for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and nearly $400 million for the Flood Mitigation Assistance program. This continues the trend of oversubscription to Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs and demonstrates the need for hazard mitigation in the United States.

FEMA estimates the project grant selections for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities and Flood Mitigation Assistance grant programs will be announced in the summer of 2021. From March-April, FEMA is reviewing each subapplication to ensure eligibility and minimum program requirements are met. In addition, a National Technical Review (NTR) team reviews each eligible project subapplications for cost-effectiveness and engineering feasibility. All eligible projects go through an Environmental and Historic Preservation review.

This year for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant applications, FEMA convened a virtual National Review Panel to score qualitative criteria for projects that are eligible for funding under the National Competition. In addition to FEMA employees, the agency received more than 400 individuals who expressed interest from other federal agencies, state, local, tribal and territorial governments to serve on the BRIC National Review Panel. The review panel helps increase transparency in decision-making while building mitigation capability and partnerships.

To keep stakeholders informed about the process in reviewing and selecting the eligible grants, FEMA is publishing the data to its website in the fact sheet section. Search for “Hazard Mitigation Assistance.”

Details about the Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant application process can be found in the 2015 HMA Guidance, which can be accessed on FEMA’s website. Search for “2015 HMA Guidance”.  Also, continue to check the website for updates about the application review processes for the Hazard Mitigation Assistance program on FEMA’s grants webpage.

Summary: Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities Subapplication Submissions

FEMA received 980 subapplications, which is the most subapplications received to date for pre-disaster mitigation.

Geographic Summary

• 53 states and territories applied for a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant. Of these, 25 states submitted projects with $50 million or more federal share.
• Five states submitted projects with over $200 million federal share: California, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia.
• Tribes submitted 62 subapplications requesting an estimated $20.2 million in funding.

Subapplications Summary

• For Fiscal Year 2020, nine states and three tribes submitted grant applications for non-financial Direct Technical Assistance to communities.

Table 1: Types of Subapplications

Uses of Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities	Number of Subapplications Submitted	Amount of Funding Being Requested	% of Total Dollars Requested	% of the Subapplications Submitted
Mitigation Projects	586	$3.2 Billion	88.8%	59.8%
Capability and Capacity Building Activities	327	$56.9 Million		33.4%
Management Costs	67	$344 Million
Direct Technical Assistance	12

NOTE: FEMA received seven large project applications which project amounts reached the maximum in federal share of $50 million.

Summary: Flood Mitigation Assistance Subapplication Submissions

• FEMA received 236 subapplications which is the most subapplications received to date for this grant program.

Geographic Summary

• In total, 30 states and territories applied for a Flood Mitigation Assistance grant. Two states submitted projects with $50 million or more federal share.
• Eight states submitted projects with over $10 million federal share: Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. One tribal 1 application is submitted with an estimated $512,460 million in funding.
• 26 states did not submit Flood Mitigation Assistance subapplications.

Subappplications Summary

States, territories and tribes submitted applications for the following categories.

Table 2: Types of Subapplications

Uses of Flood Mitigation Assistance	Number of Subapplications Submitted	Amount of Funding Being Requested
Individual Property Mitigation Projects	133	$246 million
Community Flood Mitigation	33	$124.3 million
Project Scoping	29	$5.1 million
Technical Assistance/Flood Hazard Planning	41	$17.6 million
Management Costs	27	$16.8 million

Contact Us

If you have any questions, please contact Office of External Affairs:

• Congressional Affairs at (202) 646-4500 or at FEMA-Congressional-Affairs@fema.dhs.gov
• Intergovernmental Affairs at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-IGA@fema.dhs.gov
• Tribal Affairs at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-Tribal@fema.dhs.gov
• Private Sector Engagement at (202) 646-3444 or at nbeoc@max.gov

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Follow FEMA on social media at: FEMA Blog on fema.gov, @FEMA or @FEMAEspanol on Twitter, FEMA or FEMA Espanol on Facebook, @FEMA on Instagram, and via FEMA YouTube channel.

Also, follow Acting Administrator Bob Fenton on Twitter @FEMA_Fenton.

FEMA Mission

Helping people before, during, and after disasters.

 

 

 

• Final_FEMA_Advisory_HMA_Project_Selections_03_17_2021.pdf