Wine country leaders lobby for more funding following grant cuts

NAPA, Calif. - Leaders in Napa County visited Washington D.C. to make a case for more funding after the federal government slashed millions of dollars worth of grants intended to help reduce hazard risks.

Napa officials were prompted to make the move after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced on April 4 that it would not commit more than $880 million this year to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, which was established in 2020 to aid communities' efforts to mitigate risks related to hazards such as wildfires and other natural disasters.

FEMA also said in its announcement that it would cease funding BRIC projects that were already approved and underway.

The agency said – in a prepared statement attributed to an unnamed "FEMA Spokesperson" – that the BRIC program "was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program" that "was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters."

The agency did not elaborate on its claims, and instead said the cuts were made to ensure that grant funding "aligns with the President’s Executive Orders and [Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's] direction."

Local perspective:

The federal government in 2023 agreed to commit more than $37 million to Napa County as part of the BRIC grant program, and the county was prepared to spend about $27 million of that allocation on contractors to build and implement hazard mitigation infrastructure. The county was also prepared to dedicate $12.5 million to the grant program.

Anne Cottrell, Napa County District 3 Supervisor, told KTVU the projects that are undertaken as part of the grant program are worthwhile and significant to the Napa community.

"Resilience is so important, and the place to spend money is on the prevention and mitigation side of it," Cottrell said. "So we want to show that this is a really good use and a really efficient use of government dollars."

Cottrell added that Napa's mitigation efforts are now on hold as officials figure out how to secure funding, which she described as "a big blow to the county."