Today, Attorney General Dan Rayfield and 11 other states filed a lawsuit against Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary David Richardson, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for, once again, interfering with grants already promised to the states for emergency management, disaster-relief, and homeland security operations.
The lawsuit was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
“Oregonians shouldn’t have to worry about whether the money to keep them safe in times of crisis is actually going to show up,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “These grants put people, gear and resources where they’re needed in an emergency– for firefighters, first responders and law enforcement. Families deserve that support and we’re making sure it reaches the people who need it.”
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has attempted to reduce FEMA’s role and shift the burden of emergency management to the States by denying or restricting requests for emergency declarations, withholding grant funding, and imposing irrelevant and unconstitutional terms on recipients of long-standing FEMA grants.
The coalition maintains that the Trump Administration included illegal and impossible-to-meet grant terms in the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) and the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) that depart from past practice and serve only as obstacles in obtaining and using the funding as previously promised.
In Oregon, these federal grants fund the backbone of the emergency management system — from staffing the State Emergency Coordination Center to supporting local and tribal agencies across all 36 counties. Without this funding, the Oregon Department of Emergency Management estimates that about two-thirds of Oregon’s counties could lose significant or even all capacity to perform basic emergency management functions. Homeland security grants also fund critical safety work — from terrorism prevention training and emergency response exercises to maintaining Oregon’s TITAN Fusion Center, which supports intelligence sharing and public safety coordination statewide.
The federal government has placed an improper funding hold on one grant and changed the timeline for the expenditure of funding under both grants. The coalition argues that these terms are unlawful because they exceed Defendants’ authority, are contrary to law, fail to comply with required procedures, and are unexplained. By imposing these terms, Defendants have inappropriately restricted the States’ ability to use the funding as anticipated—including for past and future projects that fall within the scope of the grant programs.
Joining Attorney General Rayfield in this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wisconsin as well as the Governor of Kentucky.
