States sue over Trump’s limits for FEMA grants

The states say two new terms on FEMA grants "erect inappropriate barriers" to accessing vital emergency management funding.

by Monique Merrill, Court House News, November 4, 2025

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — Twelve states accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of violating federal law by withholding already-promised grants for emergency management, homeland security and disaster-relief services.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Oregon federal court, the states say new terms for Federal Emergency Management Agency grant programs are the latest attempt by Trump to curtail the agency’s programs and shift the burden of emergency management to individual states, which they say creates an “inconsistent patchwork of disaster response across the nation.”

Both the Emergency Management Performance Grant program and the Homeland Security Grant Program formula grants provide federal funding to help states prepare for and respond to disasters. New terms have placed an improper hold on funding for one and changed the schedule for using funds from both grants, the states argue.

“Both terms erect inappropriate barriers to plaintiff states’ access to the grant funds — functionally defunding state and local police agencies and emergency response personnel (the ultimate users of most of the grant funding) across the country,” the states wrote.

The states are asking a federal judge to block the terms.

“Oregonians shouldn’t have to worry about whether the money to keep them safe in times of crisis is actually going to show up,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser accused the Trump administration of playing political games with preparedness funding.

“The Trump administration’s reckless and lawless actions to undermine emergency management and disaster funding are designed to harm Colorado and other states that won’t be bullied,” Weiser said in a statement.

In the Emergency Management Performance Grant program, a new term places a hold on funding until a state provides FEMA with a certification of its population and an explanation of the methodology used to determine it.

Specifically, the federal government requires states to attest that their reported population “does not include individuals that have been removed from the state pursuant to the immigration laws of the United States.” Funding will be released only when the government approves the state’s methodology and population certification.

The states argue they lack both real-time population data (they rely on U.S. Census Bureau estimates) and the means to track the number of people who have been removed (figures held by the Department of Homeland Security). They say the certification requirement exceeds the administration’s authority and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

The other term at issue impacts both the Emergency Management Performance Grant program and the Homeland Security Grant Program formula grants. It cuts the reimbursement window from three years to one.

“At best, it imposes significant obstacles upon recipients’ ability to utilize the funds for emergency management and security activities that fall within the scope of the grants; at worst, it makes the [Emergency Management Performance Grant and the Homeland Security Grant Program] funding largely unusable,” the states wrote.

The Emergency Management Performance Grant award funds large portions of the plaintiff states emergency response operations, including funding employees who work on disaster response efforts, supporting training programs, running disaster response exercises and purchasing equipment.

In Arizona, for example, it funds 50% of state emergency management functions and services.

“The Trump administration is trying to claw back money we use to protect the border, including for protective equipment and vehicles for law enforcement on the ground, and to support emergency preparedness and terrorism response preparation,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement.

Oregon estimates that around 66% of its counties will lose “significant-to-all” capacity to perform emergency management functions without Emergency Management Performance Grant funding.

“These grants put people, gear and resources where they’re needed in an emergency — for firefighters, first responders and law enforcement,” Rayfield said. “Families deserve that support, and we’re making sure it reaches the people who need it.”

The states named the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, FEMA and its acting Administrator David Richardson as defendants.

The 12 states suing the government include Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

This is not the first lawsuit accusing Trump of meddling with FEMA funding.

In May, a coalition of states sued the Trump administration, accusing it of tying federal emergency relief to state cooperation with immigration enforcement. In October, a federal judge in Rhode Island found the government violated a court order barring it from enforcing requirements that effectively withhold disaster aid from states with so-called “sanctuary immigration laws” and called it a “ham-handed attempt to bully the states into making promises they have no obligation to make.”

The federal defendants did not provide a comment before press time.