FEMA kills a big red state grant, a key ‘DEIA’ choice, and $2.1 billion in grants listings. Probably.
Plus: A rescissions decision may be the mission and the latest on missing workforce grants.
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Greetings from Harvard where I’m talking with community college leaders at a Kennedy School convening hosted by the Reimagining the Economy Project and the American Institutes for Research. First impressions of Cambridge? The signs banning references to the “How you like them apples?” scene are prominent, strongly worded, yet distinctly classy.
As you might have gathered from reading this blurb, I am continuing renovation of the Friday format to improve readability and accessibility and find new ways to stress the Substack platform as much as possible. (Substack, it’s not your fault.)
If you missed it on Tuesday, I’m on vacation next week, but you’ll get an abbreviated edition next Friday while I’m on road.
Toplines
News you should know about money that gets people to work.
FEMA kills a workforce-tied grant on disaster prep to focus on… disaster prep?
When I listed the Danger Rating as VERY HIGH for FEMA money, I wasn’t kidding. Last Friday, two weeks before a competition deadline, FEMA announced it was killing the entire Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which funds disaster-preparation projects and workforce training that can improve disaster response.
In a release, FEMA says it plans on spending these dollars on disaster response and on disaster preparation, the latter being the point of BRIC, which descends from Congress’ 25-year effort to provide money for American communities to prepare for disasters. FEMA said the program was “politicized,” which I would take here as shorthand for Trump-opposed efforts to prepare for climate change. (There also were good jobs components in this year’s BRIC grant opportunity if you want to add it to the tally of Trump II killing things saying people deserve good jobs.)
The release also says that a portion of the funds will go toward disaster-relief. I’m not sure that’s accurate based on a cursory check of the law, but FEMA money is, to use a technical term, different. Last year’s funding opportunity is comparatively late because of last fall’s big hurricanes and congressional indecision on funding the government.
While much of BRIC’s money went to the big blue states of New York and California, Louisiana was also a top money-getter along with red Southern coastal states like Florida and Texas. Which is to say that BRIC was a popular program, even if a determined core of Trumpworld disliked it, and I’m doubtful that Congress will allow FEMA to never spend these funds again on projects that help prevent disasters. I also have serious doubts that red state leaders were given much notice that they would have to send their money back and that the program wouldn’t return.
There is more red state political frustration with this administration than you might think. State leaders finding their voice to actually complain could depend on what happens to the flood dollars also missing in action and also relied upon by coastal communities in red states. Politico reported that the Flood Mitigation Assistance grant notice has been “removed,” but that’s not technically accurate. The funding opportunity documents are gone, but as of today, FMA still has an open listing on grants.gov.
Then again, so does BRIC.
Congress budget things: occurring.
The One Bill to Rule Them All is on track. Now to figure out the details, which likely will be brutal for education and could be brutal for workforce as well.
This week’s grants listing number: $2.1 billion.
BRIC going away cuts down the number quite a bit. The number will come down even more in the next couple weeks as the last of the Biden funding opportunities reach application deadlines. And then we’ll see what’s next.
Not to pile on, but I raised my Danger Ratings on opportunities where indications are that the Trump Administration could make a sudden turn and pull the funding like BRIC. Separately, I added a new “DO NOT APPLY” Danger Rating for situations like BRIC and FMA where we know something is happening but the Administration hasn’t told the grant’s stakeholders yet. I plan on doing a fuller Danger Rating update soon.
There is a nice new private funding opportunity, though! That’s good!
Behind the paywall
A telling choice on efforts to enforce Trump’s anti-“DEIA” order in workforce dollars.
Anxiety Watch for workforce money.
$2.1 billion in workforce grants.