25 States and D.C. Sue FEMA Over Election Rules Attached to Disaster Aid

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of conditioning billions of dollars in emergency preparedness money on demands that states rewrite their election systems and help federal agents carry out immigration enforcement.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Rhode Island, was co-led by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha. Plaintiffs include 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 and Wisconsin, along with the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

At issue are conditions the administration attached this year to federal grant awards. According to the filing, states are being told to verify the citizenship of registered voters against a federal database, move toward hand-marked paper ballots, conduct federally prescribed post-election audits and cooperate with Homeland Security immigration operations. A further condition would let FEMA cancel awards that the agency decides no longer align with administration priorities.

The financial stakes are immediate. States that decline face withholding of an estimated 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program awards, with roughly $148 million at risk across the plaintiff states, and the possibility that entire awards are terminated. That money funds bomb squads, emergency communications, cybersecurity for election infrastructure and disaster response equipment — spending Congress appropriated without the strings now attached.

"Congress allocated these funds to the states for preparing for and responding to emergencies," Neronha said. "Federal emergency funding cannot and will not be held hostage from states." FEMA defended the requirements, saying in a statement that "this year, states must take critical, common-sense steps to protect U.S. elections before receiving their full" awards.

The states argue the conditions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution's Spending Clause, which bars the executive branch from imposing terms Congress never wrote into law. They are asking the court to block the conditions nationwide and order the withheld money released.

The case follows a pattern courts have already rejected. A ruling last year barred the administration from placing conditions on other FEMA funding, and a second decision this year blocked officials from steering Homeland Security money away from states seen as unsupportive of the president's agenda. The lawsuit arrives in the middle of an active disaster season, with the remnants of Tropical Storm Bertha still driving flash flooding across the Southeast and wildfire and hurricane risks mounting elsewhere.