FEMA BRIC 2026: What A/E Firms Need to Know Before July 23

What Is FEMA BRIC and Why It Matters This Quarter

FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program reopened in March 2026 with $1 billion in hazard mitigation funding and a 120-day application window closing July 23. States, tribes, and local governments apply directly — but the real work falls to the A/E firms they hire to plan, engineer, and design the projects that make applications competitive. If your clients pursue BRIC funding, your proposal pipeline just shifted (FEMA.gov).

What FEMA BRIC Funds

BRIC funds pre-disaster hazard mitigation — work that reduces future damage before the next storm, flood, fire, or earthquake. It is not recovery funding. It is not emergency response. It pays for physical projects and planning that make communities more resilient.

Eligible project categories for FY2024–2025 include:

Most BRIC dollars flow to subrecipients — cities, counties, water districts, tribal authorities — who then procure A/E services to design and deliver the work. A state emergency management agency (SEMA) or equivalent typically acts as the grant recipient and passes funding through.

Why the July 23 Deadline Matters Even If You're Not Applying Directly

Your firm probably won't sign an application. But the application deadline drives everything upstream of it.

A typical BRIC application requires a completed Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA), an engineering feasibility study, preliminary design documents, and a project narrative that ties the proposed work to an adopted Hazard Mitigation Plan. Local governments rarely have staff who can produce any of those documents. They hire A/E firms — and they start hiring in April, May, and early June, when the application is still being written.

That means two distinct A/E procurement waves come out of one NOFO:

1. Pre-application technical support (April–June 2026) — RFQs for BCA development, feasibility studies, preliminary engineering, and application narrative assistance. Short timelines, smaller fees, but fast turnover.
2. Post-award design and construction (late 2026 through 2027) — RFQs for full design, permitting, bid phase services, and construction administration on funded projects.

Firms that win pre-application work are often positioned to win the follow-on design contract because they already know the project. That's the opportunity worth chasing.

The A/E Procurement Timeline You Should Be Watching

The short window matters because most state procurement offices won't change their internal RFQ cadence to accommodate a federal deadline. They issue solicitations when they're ready. A firm that already has its BRIC qualifications package assembled can respond in a week; one that starts from scratch will miss the window.

Which A/E Firms Are Well-Positioned for BRIC Work

BRIC isn't a single-discipline opportunity. The scope depends entirely on the hazard. Firms with any of the following profiles should be chasing this work:

• Water resources / stormwater engineering — flood mitigation is the largest BRIC project category by dollar volume
• Environmental engineering and consulting — NEPA support, floodplain studies, environmental compliance
• Structural engineering — safe rooms, seismic retrofits, critical facility hardening
• Civil engineering — site design, infrastructure hardening, land acquisition support
• Geotechnical engineering — landslide, liquefaction, and seismic site characterization
• Planning firms — Hazard Mitigation Plan updates (a standalone BRIC category)
• Multi-discipline A/E with prior FEMA work — 404, 406, HMGP, FMA, PDM experience maps directly to BRIC
• Resilience and climate-adaptation specialists — increasingly called out by name in scoring criteria

If your firm has designed a levee, rebuilt a pump station after a flood, retrofitted a school for seismic code, or written a county hazard mitigation plan in the last ten years, you have a BRIC-relevant story to tell.

How to Position Your Qualifications for BRIC-Adjacent Procurements

Generic "infrastructure resilience" language gets ignored. BRIC-related RFQs reward firms that can show specific federal grant experience and specific hazard expertise. Four positioning moves that matter:

1. Surface FEMA project history prominently. If your firm has worked on Section 404, Section 406, HMGP, FMA, PDM, or prior BRIC projects, name the program on the cover and in project sheets. Evaluators look for firms that understand federal cost-share, BCA requirements, environmental compliance, and documentation rigor — prior FEMA work is the fastest way to signal that.

2. Highlight Benefit-Cost Analysis capability. BCAs are the technical bottleneck on most BRIC applications. If your firm has BCA modelers on staff, or has worked with FEMA's BCA Toolkit, say so in the firm qualifications narrative, not buried in an appendix. This alone can move you from "considered" to "shortlisted" on pre-application RFQs.

3. Credential the key personnel. List Certified Floodplain Managers (CFM), PEs with specialty disciplines matching the hazard, and project managers with federal grant experience. If you have staff with FEMA Public Assistance or Hazard Mitigation Assistance certifications, put them on the key personnel page.

4. Organize project sheets by hazard type, not by year or client. A reviewer scanning a submittal for flood mitigation experience doesn't want to dig through chronological project lists. Group sheets by hazard category (flood, wind, seismic, wildfire, drought) and within each group lead with the projects that most resemble the RFQ's scope.

What BRIC-Relevant Project Experience Sheets Should Show

A BRIC-adjacent project sheet isn't the same as a generic one. The evaluator is looking for specific things:

• Hazard addressed — flood, wind, seismic, wildfire, drought, multi-hazard
• Quantitative outcome — losses avoided, population protected, critical facilities hardened, acres of floodplain preserved
• Funding source — FEMA HMGP, FMA, PDM, BRIC, state resilience funds, CDBG-MIT, USACE 205/206
• Benefit-Cost Ratio — if calculated, include it (BRIC projects typically need BCR ≥ 1.0)
• A/E role — feasibility, preliminary engineering, final design, construction administration, BCA support, grant writing assistance
• Community served — jurisdiction name, population, disadvantaged community status if relevant (BRIC has equity scoring)

For a deeper treatment of how to assemble these, see Project Experience Sheets: What They Are and How to Create Them.

What Your Proposal Team Should Do This Month

Seven actions, in order, for firms that want to compete for BRIC-adjacent work:

1. Map your client list. Which states, counties, cities, tribes, and special districts on your client list are likely BRIC applicants? Start with anyone who has asked about flood, wildfire, or seismic mitigation in the last 24 months.
2. Call three clients. Ask directly whether they're preparing a BRIC application and whether they need application support. The call matters more than the email.
3. Pull your FEMA project history. Every project in the last ten years funded by FEMA HMA programs or related federal resilience funds needs a dedicated project sheet ready to drop into an SOQ.
4. Inventory BRIC-relevant staff. CFM holders, PEs with flood/structural/geotechnical specialties, BCA modelers, planners with HMP experience, and project managers who've run federal grant-funded projects. Update their resumes to foreground this work.
5. Build a BRIC qualifications statement. A one-page firm narrative that leads with BRIC/HMA experience, BCA capability, and key personnel. Pair with 4–6 project sheets. This becomes the first package you drop into any BRIC-related RFQ response.
6. Set procurement alerts. BRIC-related RFQs will appear on state procurement portals, county purchasing sites, and specialized agencies like SEMA/EMA equivalents. "Hazard mitigation," "BRIC," "flood mitigation engineering," and "Benefit-Cost Analysis" are the search strings that surface them.
7. Decide your go/no-go threshold early. Pre-application fees are typically small ($20K–$150K per engagement). Some firms skip this work to focus on post-award design. Others use it as a door-opener. Pick your strategy before the first RFQ lands. See our go/no-go decision framework for a scoring approach.

Where BRIC Fits in the Broader 2026 Federal A/E Market

BRIC is one of several federal resilience-oriented funding streams that matter this year. It sits alongside FEMA's Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA), HUD's CDBG-MIT, the Army Corps' Continuing Authorities Program, and state-level resilience funds seeded by IIJA dollars. Firms that build a qualifications practice around resilience can respond to all of these, not just BRIC.

This also intersects with the broader federal procurement shift we covered in Which Federal Agencies Are Buying A/E Services in 2026?. As DoD procurement slows and civilian agency work surges, BRIC is one of the clearer near-term opportunities for firms pivoting from federal construction toward resilience and mitigation scopes.

How Proposal Software Fits In

Pre-application windows reward speed. If a state issues a BRIC-support RFQ on a Friday with a two-week turnaround, a firm that has to rebuild resumes and project sheets from scratch will lose to one that can generate a tailored package in an afternoon. This is the problem proposal management tools solve — structured staff profiles and project data in one place, re-usable across every pursuit.

RFPM.ai generates tailored SF330 Section E resumes and project experience sheets from one set of structured source data, with the ability to swap hazard-type emphasis or FEMA program callouts per submittal. That's the kind of flexibility BRIC pursuits demand. See how it works.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between BRIC and HMGP? BRIC is pre-disaster — it funds mitigation projects before the next event. HMGP (Hazard Mitigation Grant Program) is post-disaster — it's triggered by a presidential disaster declaration and funds mitigation in the affected area. Both use similar methodologies, including BCA, but BRIC is nationally competitive and operates on an annual NOFO cycle.

Can our A/E firm apply for BRIC funding directly? No. BRIC applicants must be states, tribes, territories, or local governments. Private A/E firms participate by supporting applications and by being hired under funded projects after awards are made.

What is the BCA requirement, and how does it affect our proposal? Every BRIC project needs a Benefit-Cost Analysis showing a benefit-cost ratio of at least 1.0 (more for competitiveness). FEMA provides a BCA Toolkit. If your firm has BCA modelers on staff, that capability should be prominent in your qualifications package — it is one of the highest-value skills a local government hires externally for BRIC applications.

We don't have prior FEMA project experience. Can we still win BRIC-funded work? Yes, especially for post-award design contracts. Pre-application support leans heavily on FEMA-specific experience, but once a project is funded, procurement often prioritizes firms with the best technical fit for the scope — flood design, structural hardening, geotechnical work — regardless of prior FEMA history. Use the 2026 cycle to build that experience.

Will there be another BRIC round in 2027? FEMA typically runs annual NOFOs. The 2026 cycle is the FY2024–2025 combined NOFO, and a future NOFO is expected. Positioning this year builds the project history your firm will use to compete next year.

How do we find out which of our clients are applying? State emergency management agencies maintain lists of eligible applicants and often publish intended applications. County and city resilience officers, floodplain administrators, and public works directors are the points of contact. Direct outreach is faster than portal monitoring.

Sources and Further Reading

• FEMA Announces $1 Billion in Federal Funding via BRIC Program — FEMA.gov, March 25, 2026
• FEMA BRIC Program Overview — FEMA.gov
• FEMA Benefit-Cost Analysis Toolkit — FEMA.gov
• Project Experience Sheets: What They Are and How to Create Them — RFPM.ai
• Which Federal Agencies Are Buying A/E Services in 2026? — RFPM.ai
• Go/No-Go Decision Framework for Engineering Pursuits — RFPM.ai

RFPM.ai helps AEC firms assemble SF330 resumes and project experience sheets in a fraction of the time. See how it works.