SARATOGA, California — California is leading a multistate lawsuit challenging conditions the federal government has attached to homeland security grant funding, Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday.
The state said the suit targets requirements tied to roughly $150 million a year in public safety money that Congress has approved and that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency administer. Under the grant program, states pay for first-responder training, bolster cyber defenses, upgrade emergency communications, and get ready for terrorist acts and other major threats, the governor's office said.
The state said the federal government is tying the money to three requirements: states must take up certain election rules — among them checking voters' citizenship through a federal database and switching to ballots marked by hand — or forfeit a fifth of their awards; states must spend their own budgets helping civil immigration enforcement; and FEMA would gain power to halt the money at any time using its own stated priorities.
"The Administration has already lost similar fights in court, and we expect this latest unlawful attempt to fail as well," Bonta said in a statement. The coalition argues that Congress never authorized the agencies to impose such conditions, that the agencies did not follow required procedures, and that the terms are unrelated to the purpose of the grants. The federal government has not responded publicly to the filing.