Notice of Funding Availability for BRIC FY24-25

• Local governments (cities, counties, townships, special districts)
• State-recognized tribal governments
• Federally recognized tribal nations (as sub-applicants to the State).
  •  NOTE: Federally recognized Tribal Nations may apply directly to FEMA
• Sub-applicants are required to have a FEMA approved Local or Tribal Hazard Mitigation Plan in accordance with 44 C.F.R. Part 201 by the application deadline and at the time of obligation of grant funds for hazard mitigation projects. 
• Individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations are not eligible to apply for BRIC funds as a sub-applicant; however, an eligible sub-applicant may apply for funding on behalf of individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

All eligible sub-applicants must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) if they intend to apply for this funding opportunity. If any sub-applicant is not registered and current in SAM, please take immediate action to register in SAM. It may take 4 weeks or more after you submit your SAM registration before your registration is active in SAM. This registration is crucial so that your community is assigned your Unique Entity Identifier or UEI. Every community must have an UEI to be able to apply for any grant in FEMA GO.

• State Allocation: $2,000,000 (Federal Share), 
• State Building Code Plus-Up: $1,000,000 (Federal Share)
• National Competition: $757,000,000 (Federal Share)
• Management Cost (State level) is 10% overall awarded of the 3 categories above
  • NOTE: The maximum amount available to the State is $150M between all 3 categories listed above and the management cost received.

There are only two types of projects which can be submitted under BRIC 24&25:

• Capability- and Capacity-Building (C&CB) Activities (Only those directly tied to infrastructure, such as building code adoption and enforcement)
• Hazard Mitigation Projects (Infrastructure and construction projects designed to reduce risk to people, property, and critical services)
• Key points to note:
  • BRIC now prioritizes infrastructure-focused mitigation projects with clear, measurable risk reduction.
    • Infrastructure means critical physical structures, facilities, and systems that provide support to a community, its population, and its economy
  • Hazard Mitigation Plan updates and general planning activities are no longer eligible unless directly supporting infrastructure projects.
    • Directly supporting infrastructure means activities that have a clear, immediate, and primary purpose of improving, protecting, or enabling the construction, resilience, or operation of critical infrastructure systems (such as transportation, utilities, water, wastewater, communications, public buildings, or other critical facilities).
  • Phased projects are not eligible under this NOFA.
  • Hazard Mitigation Projects cannot be more than $20M Federal Share
  • Projects must be ready for implementation with at least a conceptual design
  • Period of Performance for the State is 36 months and begins with the first project awarded to the State, subsequent awards will not extend the POP date.

Sub-applicants may apply for up to 5% of the total budget of the eligible capability- and capacity-building activity (if directly tied to infrastructure) or hazard mitigation project for subrecipient management costs. The total budget refers to the sum of non-federal and federal shares of the proposed activity. Subrecipients must use subaward management costs to manage their subaward activities. Sub-applicant management cost activities must be added to the Scope of Work section and identified as a line item in the Cost Estimate section of sub-applications in FEMA GO .

Pre-award costs are directly related to developing the BRIC grant application or sub-application. The costs are incurred prior to the date of the grant award and are allowed subject to FEMA approval at time of award. Approval of pre-award costs is not guaranteed. Such costs may have been incurred prior to application submission, for example gathering data to be used for preparing environmental reviews required by National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), developing a BCA or preparing design specifications. To be eligible for BRIC funding, pre-award costs must be identified in an individual line item in the cost estimate of the sub-application. 

• NOTE: Pre-award costs may be cost shared or applicants and sub-applicants may identify them as their non-federal cost share. Costs associated with implementation of proposed projects in the submitted grant application or sub-application that are incurred prior to the date of the grant award are not allowed. 
• NOTE: Applicants and sub-applicants who are not selected for awards or subawards will not receive reimbursement for the corresponding pre-award costs.

• Cost share is required for all sub-applications funded under this program. Generally, the cost share for this program is 75% federal / 25% non-federal. The non-federal cost share may consist of cash, donated or third-party in-kind services, materials, or any combination thereof. Cash and third-party in-kind matches must consist of eligible costs (i.e., same eligibility as the federal share). Applicants cannot apply other federal award funds toward the BRIC non-federal cost share unless the other federal statutory authority allows the funds to be used to meet cost share requirements. Refer to the HMA Cost Share Guide for more information. FEMA encourages innovative use of public and private-sector partnerships to meet the non-federal cost share.
  • NOTE: BRIC funding cannot be used as matching funds for another federal award. Additionally, third-party in-kind matches used to meet the matching requirement may not be used to meet matching requirements for any other federal program.
• Small Impoverished Communities: Small, impoverished communities as defined at 42 U.S.C. § 5133(a) meeting the following criteria are eligible for an increase in cost share up to 90% federal / 10% non-federal:
  • of 3,000 or fewer individuals identified by the applicant 
  • that is economically disadvantaged, with residents having an average per capita annual income not exceeding 80% of the national per capita income, based on the best available data.
  • NOTE: The following entities, having met all other eligibility requirements as detailed in “Participant Eligibility” subsection of this funding opportunity, may work in collaboration with a small, impoverished community to build, and submit a sub-application on their behalf: 
    • (1) applicants or
    •  (2) local government sub-applicants, including a school district, special district, intrastate district, council of governments (regardless of whether the council of governments is incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under state law), regional or interstate government entity, or agency or instrumentality of a local government. 
  • An applicant or sub-applicant applying on behalf of a small impoverished community must include as part of the sub-application a letter authorizing the submission. There is no required format for the authorizing letter, but it should contain the following information:

Point of contact information, including:

-    A name
-    Community
-    Address
-    Phone number
-    and email for the small, impoverished community and the applicant or sub-applicant applying on their behalf.
-    A signature from an authorized representative of the small, impoverished community.
 

• An applicant or sub-applicant applying on behalf of a small, impoverished community will be eligible to receive up to a 90% federal cost share and is eligible for points in Evaluation Criteria for National Competition.
• Applicants and sub-applicants who apply as a small, impoverished community, or applicants and sub-applicants who apply on behalf of one, must request the increased federal cost share amount in the Cost Share section of their sub-application(s).
• Applicants must ensure the “Community” and “Location” sections correctly identify the small, impoverished community. 
• Applicants must certify sub-applicants’ small, impoverished community status and provide documentation with the sub-application(s) to justify the increased federal cost share.
•  If documentation is not submitted with the sub-application, then FEMA will provide no more than 75% federal cost share of the total eligible costs.

Applicants and sub-applicants applying for hazard mitigation projects are required to use FEMA-approved methodologies and tools, such as the BCA Toolkit, to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of their projects. Further details on hazard mitigation project cost-effectiveness can be found in the HMA Guide, Part 5. Cost-Effectiveness or on the Benefit-Cost Analysis webpage. 

The sub-applicant, in coordination with the applicant, must identify at least one or more Go/No-Go milestones in the work schedule for hazard mitigation projects submitted to the National Competition that FEMA will review and approve. Hazard mitigation projects submitted under the State Allocation do not require Go/No-Go milestones. A Go/No-Go milestone is a major milestone in the project that if not completed on time may result in a cancellation of the subaward. Progress towards meeting the Go/No-Go milestones must be reported in the quarterly progress reports submitted to the recipient and FEMA. At these Go/No-Go milestones, FEMA will evaluate project performance, schedule adherence, and contribution to FEMA’s program goals and objectives.