More than two dozen states have sued the Trump administration for requiring them to comply with election and immigration conditions in order to receive billions of dollars in federal funding for disasters.
Disaster Funding Conditions
The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island, challenges Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security policies that require states to change their elections systems and help the Department of Homeland Security with immigration enforcement.
The conditions would also allow the Department of Homeland Security to terminate grants at any time and for any reason. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha stated, “Once again, the Trump Administration is threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding and once again, they won’t get away with it.”
The states argue that putting conditions on congressionally appropriated funding violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s spending clause. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Previous Rulings
The courts have repeatedly found this strategy to be unlawful and unconstitutional. A ruling last year barred the administration from putting conditions on other FEMA funding, and a second ruling this year blocked the administration from redirecting DHS funding away from states not seen as supportive to the administration’s agenda.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote last year, when he barred the Transportation Secretary from cutting off transportation funds to states that did not comply with immigration enforcement actions, “The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects.”
The latest lawsuit argues the administration is attempting to apply some of the same conditions on 2026 funding, as it failed to do with funding last year.
Among the requirements being challenged in Thursday’s lawsuit is that states change their elections systems. They must transition to paper-ballot systems, conduct a manual audit of voting systems, reconcile voters, and verify the citizenship of every registered voter in the state’s voter databases.
If states fail to comply, they risk losing at least 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program funding. That money is used to fund measures to protect citizens from cyberattacks and terrorism.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
