WASHINGTON —

A federal judge ordered FEMA on Thursday to restore billions of dollars in grant funding designed to help communities prepare before disasters strike.

The funding was halted earlier this year as part of the Trump administration's broader overhaul of the federal agency. The next steps in that effort remain unclear, for now, as the release of a long-awaited report was also delayed on Thursday.

The lawsuit stems from a dispute over the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. It's the largest pre-disaster mitigation program offered through FEMA.

In April, the Trump administration halted $3.6 billion in grant funding that had already been awarded to states and communities. FEMA initially said it planned to end the program, but later said in a court

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