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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 12 states in filing a lawsuit against Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary David Richardson, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for interfering with grants already promised to the states for emergency management, disaster-relief, and homeland security operations.
“When emergencies strike Maryland communities, our State agencies and first responders need resources to act quickly and save lives, like they did earlier this year in the air disaster over the Potomac River and the severe flash flooding in Western Maryland,” said Attorney General Brown. “We will not allow the Trump administration to threaten Marylanders' safety by putting unlawful restrictions on grants that protect them from disasters and security threats.”
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. Many of these unlawful actions have been successfully challenged in court.
The coalition maintains that the Trump administration included unlawful 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.
These grants fund a substantial portion of the state’s emergency management apparatus, including the Maryland Department of Emergency Management (MDEM). These grants, for example, helped support MDEM’s response to the January 2025 air disaster over the Potomac River, and MDEM’s response to severe flash flooding in Western Maryland in May 2025. They also provide federal funding to states to assist with homeland security and terrorism prevention.
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 Brown in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Hawaiʻi, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon and Wisconsin as well as the Governor of Kentucky. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
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