Awards accumulated faster than projects closed
The Government Accountability Office reported that FEMA had awarded 1,245 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities subgrants as of March 2025, allocating about $2.5 billion of $4.8 billion made available for the first five application cycles. Only 37 projects had been completed or entered closeout.
What’s the Scoop With Broach divided 37 by 1,245: 3.0% of awarded subgrants had reached that end stage. FEMA had reimbursed about $62 million, a small fraction of the allocated amount, although reimbursement can lag project work.
| Measure | Published value | Newsroom calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Awarded subgrants | 1,245 | Denominator |
| Completed or in closeout | 37 | 3.0% of awards |
| Additional pending subapplications | About 700 | 36.0% of awarded-plus-pending count |
| Funding tied to pending applications | $2.2B | 45.8% of $4.8B made available |
| Federal reimbursement | $62M | Reported amount; timing varies |
A restart followed an eleven-month award interruption
GAO said FEMA did not make BRIC awards from April 2025 through March 2026. The agency ended the program in April 2025, then reinstated it in March 2026 after litigation and announced plans to process the pending applications.
The roughly 700 pending subapplications were linked to $2.2 billion. GAO said the median process from a complete pre-award package to award took seven to nine months in the first five cycles, showing that delay existed even before the interruption.
Seven controls remain open
GAO made seven recommendations covering data reliability, performance measurement, award timeliness and reporting. The Department of Homeland Security concurred, but all seven were open when GAO published the report.
The closeout ratio is a newsroom calculation, not GAO’s performance grade. Large infrastructure projects can take years, and the report’s status date predates the program’s restart. The finding establishes slow maturation of the awarded portfolio, not that 97% of projects failed.
Method and limitations
The newsroom examined GAO’s report page and report, checked the status dates, and recomputed ratios from the published counts. The 36.0% pending share uses only awarded awards plus stage-two pending applications; it is not a rate for every initial applicant.
Dollar amounts are rounded by GAO, so the 45.8% calculation is approximate. Reimbursement is not the same as project completion, and later awards or closures after GAO’s review are outside the data.