{"id":15270,"date":"2026-07-24T02:53:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15270"},"modified":"2026-07-24T02:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:53:46","slug":"california-other-states-sue-trump-administration-for-unlawful-conditions-on-disaster-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15270","title":{"rendered":"California, other states sue Trump administration for &#8216;unlawful&#8217; conditions on disaster grants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and other Democratic attorneys general are suing the Trump administration over imposing what they contend are \u201cunlawful\u201d conditions on federal grants intended to help states prepare and respond to disasters.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/system\/files\/attachments\/press-docs\/fema-dhs-complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><u>lawsuit<\/u><\/a>, filed in federal court in Rhode Island on Thursday, argues that the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency have been using their control over billions of dollars in federal grants to operate what the attorneys general see as an aggressive \u201ccampaign of coercion\u201d to adopt the Trump administration\u2019s preferred voting and immigration policies, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCongress never gave DHS or FEMA authority to rewrite state election law, require cooperation with federal immigration agents, or terminate federal funding streams at any time and for any reason,\u201d the lawsuit stated. The legal action was filed by a coalition of 24 attorneys general and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, both Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>At the crux of their legal complaint are two federal programs: the Homeland Security Grant Program, which was established by Congress as a response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the Emergency Management Performance Grant Program, which helps states pay for emergency management staff who plan for and respond to natural disasters and mass casualty events, as well as software programs used by state emergency operations centers.<\/p>\n<p>For the homeland security grant, the Trump administration has attached \u201cradical\u201d new terms based on Trump\u2019s preferred policies, the states contend.<\/p>\n<p>These terms include verifying the citizenship of all individuals in state voter databases, transitioning their voting systems to equipment that reads hand-marked paper ballots and conducting post-election audits \u201caccording to nonexistent guidelines to be set by the Secretary of Homeland Security,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>And the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA have threatened to make states \u201cpromise to devote their scarce resources to the federal government\u2019s own task of civil immigration enforcement\u201d in order to receive both the homeland security and the emergency management grants, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>At a  news conference Thursday, Bonta laid out the stakes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese grants help communities prepare for emergencies before disaster strikes,\u201d he said. \u201cThey support emergency management personnel, strengthen disaster response capabilities, improve coordination among first responders, and help protect our residents when they need government the most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration restrictions would mean \u201cour communities would have fewer resources to prepare for wildfires, earthquakes, floods, terrorist threats, and other emergencies,\u201d Bonta stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTime after time, courts have told Trump\u2019s corrupt administration that it can\u2019t coerce California into doing its bidding by threatening to withhold public safety funding,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. \u201cYet, they\u2019re coming back for more. This time they\u2019re demanding states rewrite their own election laws to access money that pays for public safety readiness and response, and that Congress already approved. We simply won\u2019t allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and other Democratic attorneys general are suing the Trump administration over imposing what they contend are \u201cunlawful\u201d conditions on federal grants intended to help states prepare and respond to disasters. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island on Thursday, argues that the Department of Homeland Security and Federal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/be36281\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8640x4536+0+612\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7a%2F45%2F9ac0f2394e14aa777cd448ef2c4b%2F2ec68f80abbe4023be523c5338f644c5.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}