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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown recently secured an order from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon blocking the Trump administration from imposing illegal terms upon two Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants. In November, Attorney General Brown joined a coalition of 12 states in filing a lawsuit against Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, and FEMA and its top official for unlawfully interfering with grants already promised to the states for emergency management, disaster relief, and homeland security operations.
“Marylanders whose lives are upended by floods, plane crashes, and other disasters depend on emergency responders having the resources they need to act quickly," said Attorney General Brown. “Our lawsuit stopped the Trump administration from blocking Maryland's access to critical emergency funding when lives are on the line."
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 illegal actions have been successfully challenged in court and a previous case resulted in a decision in favor of the state plaintiffs, Illinois v. FEMA, 1:25-cv-206 (D.R.I.)
In this case, the coalition successfully argued 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 departed from past practice and served only as obstacles to states obtaining and using the funding.
These grants fund a substantial portion of Maryland's emergency management apparatus, including over $18 million for the Maryland Department of Emergency Management. They also provide federal funding to states to assist with homeland security and terrorism prevention.
The federal government had placed an improper funding hold on one grant and changed the timeline for the expenditure of funding under both grants. The Court found that these terms violated the Administrative Procedure Act in several respects. Specifically, the hold on the EMPG exceeded defendants' statutory authority, was contrary to law, and was arbitrary and capricious. Likewise, the changed timeline for both grants was arbitrary and capricious because FEMA disregarded the states' reliance interests and did not explain the change. By imposing these terms, the Trump administration 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. In its December 23 order, the Court vacated the challenged terms and entered permanent injunctive relief barring FEMA from imposing the terms.
Joining Attorney General Brown in securing this order 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.
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