More than 24 states sue Trump administration after it put conditions on receiving disaster funding
BOSTON (AP) — More than two dozen states sued the Trump administration on Thursday for forcing them to follow the rules. vote and immigration requirements to receive billions of dollars in federal funding for disasters.
The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island and challenging the policies of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, alleged that the administration required states to change their election systems and assist DHS with immigration enforcement. The terms will also allow DHS to terminate grants at any time and for any reason.
“The Trump Administration is once again threatening to endanger public safety by illegally withholding billions of dollars in critical funding, and once again they will not get away with it,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. “This Administration is using the safety of Americans as collateral by forcing states to waive their constitutional rights to enact policies and laws that will best serve their residents.”
The states argue that placing conditions on congressionally appropriated funds violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In a statement, a FEMA spokesperson called the case an example of “partisan pushback” and said they expect “these left-wing politicians to oppose common-sense measures designed to protect election security and protect the integrity of American democracy.”
“Election security is national security, and protecting our critical infrastructure remains a top priority for the Trump Administration,” they said. “Concerns about voting processes, data security and recording practices made it clear that action was necessary.”
The case is one of many that has challenged the Trump administration over its sustained efforts to intimidate mostly Democratic states into complying with their priorities to obtain billions of dollars in federal funding. The strategy has been used on everything from education funding to domestic violence grants. highway financing.
Courts have repeatedly found this strategy to be illegal and unconstitutional. An order last year barred the administration from placing conditions on other FEMA funds, and a second decision this year prevented the administration from diverting DHS funds away from states that don’t support its agenda.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. “States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are put in the position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, risk losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will be forced to scale back, rethink or cancel ongoing transportation projects,” he wrote last year, when he banned Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy from cutting transportation funding to states that fail to comply with immigration enforcement.
The latest lawsuit suggests that the administration is trying to impose some of the same conditions on the 2026 financing as it failed to do on last year’s financing.
Among the requirements challenged in Thursday’s lawsuit is that states change their policies. Electoral systems. They must switch to paper voting systems, manually audit voting systems, reconcile voters and verify the citizenship of every voter registered in the state’s voter databases.
If states do not comply, they risk losing at least 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program funding. This money is used to finance measures to protect citizens from cyber attacks and terrorism.
“The Trump Administration is holding critical funds for homeland security and disaster response hostage in its latest attempt to take over our elections and perpetuate baseless conspiracy theories,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement. he said.
Since the 2020 presidential election Defeated by Democrat Joe BidenTrump baselessly claimed that mail-in voting was rife with fraud and launched a federal investigation in that year’s voting repeated inspections and investigationsto contain run by RepublicansI found it to be so. free from common scams. Trump also said he wanted to “take over” election administration in Democratic districts.
