▶ Watch Video: 25 states sue FEMA and DHS
A coalition of states is suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, accusing the Trump administration of withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster-preparedness and homeland security grants to force states to adopt its policies on elections and immigration.
The complaint challenges new conditions imposed on the funding that would require states to verify voter citizenship through a federal database, move toward hand-marked paper ballots, conduct federally prescribed election audits and cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit was filed by a group of 25 states and the District of Columbia.
They estimate that FEMA could withhold at least 20% of Homeland Security Grant Program awards — about $148 million from the plaintiff states — and potentially terminate entire awards for continued noncompliance, moving forward.
DHS funds typically offer emergency-management support — reimbursing for first responders, bomb squads, cybersecurity, disaster response and security at houses of worship.
The lawsuit alleges DHS is using the funds as leverage over policies that the states argue are largely unrelated to those programs as part of a pressure campaign.
The lawsuit also challenges language that would permit FEMA to cancel grants that no longer align with the administration’s changing priorities or view of the “national interest.” The states argue that such authority would make multiyear federal awards unreliable and give the executive branch a way to redirect spending approved by Congress.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, who’s co-leading the case, accused the Trump administration of “threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding.”
“Congress allocated these funds to the states for preparing for and responding to emergencies including counterterrorism and natural disasters, and the executive branch has no legal say in the matter,” Neronha said in a statement announcing the suit. “Federal emergency funding cannot and will not be held hostage from states.”
A FEMA spokesperson told CBS News: “This partisan pushback from New Jersey, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island is nothing new. We fully expected these left-wing politicians to oppose common-sense measures designed to protect election security and safeguard the integrity of American democracy.”
“This year, states must take critical, common-sense steps to protect U.S. elections before receiving their full Homeland Security Grant Program awards,” FEMA’s statement continued. “These new requirements will preserve election integrity.”
Along with Rhode Island, the suit was joined by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
The states contend the conditions imposed by FEMA and DHS violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution’s Spending Clause.
Attorneys General from the states and Washington, D.C., are now asking a federal judge in Rhode Island to block the conditions, void them nationwide as applied to the plaintiffs and require the agencies to issue funding documents.