RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) – North Carolina’s attorney general is among those suing the federal government over the threat of withholding emergency management funds over unrelated issues.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for threatening to withhold more than a billion dollars that states use to fund counterterrorism and disaster response efforts.
States rely on this money to purchase equipment for bomb squads, conduct active shooter exercises, combat cyberattacks, respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters, address flood risks, manage wildfires, and conduct search-and-rescue efforts – several of which North Carolina has experienced in just the past two years.
“FEMA is threatening our counterterrorism funding again,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “The last time they tried this, we took them to court and won. Now they’re trying again, and I expect we’ll beat them – again. Hopefully they get the message: Don’t threaten our first responders unless you’re ready for a fight.”
Congress created these programs – including the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Emergency Management Performance Grant – to strengthen state and local counterterrorism capabilities and emergency preparedness. North Carolina received over $17 million through them last year.
Now FEMA and DHS are attaching conditions that have nothing to do with the grants’ purposes.
One condition would let DHS terminate any federal grant at any time, for any reason. That means the federal government could pull the money in the middle of a counterterrorism operation, a cybersecurity response, a hurricane recovery, or a search-and-rescue effort. States cannot plan major public safety operations around funding the federal government claims it can cancel without cause or warning.
A second condition would withhold the money unless states change how they administer elections. FEMA does not run elections and has no authority over them. Those demands would interfere with the authority of the North Carolina State Board of Elections and county boards. They would also force at least 13 North Carolina counties, most of them rural, to spend millions of dollars replacing voting equipment the State Board already certified after mandatory testing by nationally accredited laboratories.
If states refuse these unrelated election administration demands, DHS and FEMA are threatening to withhold at least 20% of each state’s Homeland Security Grant Program funding – the money Congress provided for counterterrorism and public safety.
Attorney General Jackson previously sued FEMA and DHS after they withheld $17 million in North Carolina funding for emergency management, disaster relief, and homeland security operations. The court rejected the conditions DHS and FEMA put on those funds, finding that they were not “consistent with Congressional intent or FEMA’s mission.”
The attorneys general argue that FEMA and DHS are violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Joining Attorney General Jackson in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.