Trump administration 'covertly' denied FEMA relief money for blue states: judge
A federal judge in Rhode Island accused the Trump administration of "covertly" withholding funds for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief programs from states that didn't vote for him, Courthouse News reported on Friday.
"In March, U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction in favor of 23 states that sued the government over its plan to implement a broad pause to state aid," noted the report.
McConnell, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, "ruled that the plan 'fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,' and ordered the Trump administration to 'immediately end any funding pause' until further notice."
However, per the report, 19 states, all with Democratic attorneys general, provided "undisputed evidence" that the Trump administration has since then continued to withhold FEMA aid.
"Oregon claimed that more than $120 million in disaster relief assistance for winter storms, flooding, landslides, wildfires and flood mitigation remains frozen by FEMA. Hawaii said that the agency still hasn’t answered a roughly $6 million request for aid to rebuild after the 2023 wildfires in Maui," noted the report.
Trump officials, for their part, "had claimed that FEMA was merely implementing a new manual review process for allocated funding, which it says is allowed under the court’s injunction. However, the states countered that they were missing a 'substantial disbursement of funds' on the critical grants 'since early February.'"
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McConnell agreed, saying in his order that the policy "covertly" amounts to an "indefinite pause" and thus "FEMA’s manual review process violates the court’s preliminary injunction order."
In a statement to the outlet's Erik Uebelacker, a Homeland Security official did not deny that money was withheld from blue states, and attacked the ruling.
"This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to obstruct President Trump's agenda. At the direction of Secretary Noem, FEMA has implemented additional controls to ensure that all grant program activity is consistent with law and does not promote fraud, waste or abuse, as it has in the past. We will continue to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and for mission critical efforts.
GOP officials have routinely played with the idea in recent months of putting extra conditions on blue states for obtaining disaster relief, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggesting added demands on California after the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area; meanwhile, Trump has reportedly considered unilaterally trying to shut down FEMA altogether, although this would potentially prevent much more funding to red states than blue states.