Oregon sues Trump admin for restricting access to federal emergency grants

Oregon is suing the Trump administration for allegedly holding back emergency grants promised to the state for emergency management, disaster-relief and homeland security operations. 

Eleven other states joined Oregon in filing the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene. It lists the U.S.Department of Homeland Security, Department Secretary Kristi Noem, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its acting administrator David Richardson as defendants. 

The states allege the Trump administration is imposing new rules that make it almost impossible to receive two grants that provide federal funding to states to help with emergency management and disaster preparedness for all levels of government — especially for local and state police agencies.

“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 Rayfield said in a statement. “These grants put people, gear and resources where they’re needed in an emergency — for firefighters, first responders and law enforcement.”

All 36 of Oregon’s counties receive federal emergency grants, according to an Oregon Department of Justice press release. Without funding from the federal emergency grant program, the Oregon Department of Emergency Management estimates that about two-thirds of Oregon’s counties could lose significant or all capacity to perform basic emergency management functions. 

The homeland security grants are especially important for terrorism prevention training, emergency response exercises and maintaining Oregon’s TITAN Fusion Center, which provides intelligence sharing and public safety coordination across the state. 

President Donald Trump at the beginning of his second term suggested that states should take care of natural disaster damage on their own, calling the Federal Emergency Management Agency a “disaster,” Stateline reported. Since then, his administration has denied or restricted requests for emergency declarations, withheld grant funding and imposed what the Oregon Department of Justice argues are irrelevant terms on recipients who have long received federal emergency grants. 

Meanwhile, Congress hasn’t scaled back funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Democratic attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin joined the lawsuit, as did Democratic  Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

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