Attorney General Bonta Celebrates Final Ruling Stopping Illegal Diversion of Vital Homeland Security Funding

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today secured a permanent injunction stopping the unlawful reallocation of hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Homeland Security Grant Program funding away from states like California based on their adoption of policies the Trump Administration does not like.

"Over and over, the courts have rebuked the Trump Administration's unlawful attempts to punish states for adopting policies it doesn't like," said Attorney General Bonta. "The Trump Administration may go down in history as the most anti-public safety administration in history, yanking funding that states like California use to help us prepare for and protect against terrorism and other threats. I'm gratified the court saw through the President's flimsy excuses and issued an order that ensures we get the funding we're legally entitled to."

For decades, California has relied on Homeland Security Grant Program funding to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorism and other catastrophes. And across each presidential administration, this funding had been allocated even-handedly and on the basis of need and risk, as required by Congress. Yet in September, California and other states received award notifications that were significantly lower than anticipated - without justification and seemingly based on their states' decision to use their law enforcement resources to protect public safety rather than assist in federal immigration enforcement.

Attorney General Bonta and a coalition promptly sued and secured a temporary restraining order stopping the unlawful reallocation of the homeland security funding while their litigation continued. The coalition later amended the complaint to include FEMA's attempt to impose an illegal new condition on Emergency Management Performance Grants requiring states to certify to their current populations - instead of relying on census data-making an impossible ask for data the states do not have in order to receive critical emergency management funding.

Today's decision resolves the case, vacating the unlawful agency actions and granting permanent injunctive relief to the Plaintiff States, subject to appeal. The decision orders FEMA to re-issue award letters to the states that reflect the amounts the states were originally set to receive and removes the unlawful population certification requirement.