WA and other states win temporary block on politically motivated cuts to homeland security funding

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from unlawfully reallocating federal homeland security funding away from states based on their compliance with the administration's political agenda, a day after a coalition of states including Washington filed a lawsuit.

On Saturday, without any notice or explanation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) significantly cut funding from the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) to certain states that are unwilling to divert law enforcement resources away from core public safety services to assist in enforcing federal immigration law. DHS then attempted to redistribute the funds to other states.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown joined a coalition of attorneys general Monday in filing a lawsuit challenging the illegal cuts. Today, a judge ordered the administration to put the redistribution on hold and set the money aside while the case plays out in court.

"There's no legal basis for steering these dollars away from states for a purely political reason," Brown said. "The need to protect our communities from possible terrorist attacks should be something we can all agree on."

Congress appropriates approximately $1 billion in funds annually for state and municipal efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to acts of terrorism under the HSGP program. FEMA granted only $226 million to the states filing yesterday's lawsuit. This would be a $233 million, or 51%, reduction from the total amount that FEMA had previously stated it would provide to these states. Washington state's expected allocation abruptly saw $2 million taken away.

Brown joined the lawsuit with the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

A copy of the temporary restraining order is available here.

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