According to a report by the American CBS network on July 23, 25 states in the United States and the District of Columbia have jointly sued the U.S. government, opposing President Donald Trump's decision to link some disaster relief funds with state changes in electoral systems.
These states have sued the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, accusing the Trump administration of withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster relief and homeland security funds, in order to force states to accept their policies regarding elections and immigration.
The litigation documents submitted to the United States District Court in Rhode Island show that the Trump administration set conditions for some funding allocations. States were required to verify voters' American citizenship through a federal database, use handwritten ballots, conduct elections audits as required by federal law, and cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agencies. Otherwise, 20% of the funding allocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be suspended.
The Trump administration also threatened that if states continued to fail to comply with the new regulations, the Federal Emergency Management Agency might cancel all funding.
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency
The complaint alleges that the Trump administration used funds as a bargaining chip to pressure states' policies, but these policies have no connection to programs such as disaster relief and emergency management. States believe that the Trump administration's approach will make multi-year federal funding unreliable and give the executive branch the ability to divert spending approved by Congress.
According to the Associated Press, the states filing the lawsuits believe that imposing conditions on U.S. congressional funding violates the U.S. Administrative Procedure Act and the constitutional provision regarding expenditures.
Rhode Island State's Attorney General Peter Nero said: "The Trump administration illegally detained hundreds of millions of dollars in critical funds and threatened to endanger public safety, but they will not succeed this time. The current government attempts to use the safety of American citizens as a leverage to force states to abandon their constitutional right to enact policies and laws that are best for their residents."
The spokesperson for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency denied the allegations. In a statement, she said: "This year, states must take key and reasonable measures to protect the midterm elections, in order to receive all the funding from the Homeland Security Appropriations Act. These new requirements will ensure the fairness of the elections."
Due to the Trump administration's repeated use of federal funding as a condition for forcing states in the United States to accept its policies, the Trump administration is facing a series of legal challenges. According to The Associated Press, a U.S. court ruled last year to prohibit the Trump administration from imposing conditions on federal emergency management agency funding. Earlier this year, another ruling prevented the government from transferring funds from certain states to the Department of Homeland Security.
