MONTPELIER – Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, joined a coalition of 12 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to stop the Trump Administration from unlawfully reallocating federal homeland security funding away from states based on their compliance with the Administration’s political agenda. In addition, the Administration reduced the period during which states have to spend the funds from three years to one year, making it substantially more difficult to use these critical funds.
On Saturday, without any notice or explanation, and four days before the end of the federal fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) significantly cut funding to certain states that are unwilling to divert law enforcement resources away from core public safety services to assist in enforcing federal immigration law while reallocating those funds to other states.
The move came days after Attorney General Clark and a group of attorneys general secured a permanent injunction along with an opinion holding that the agencies violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by conditioning all federal funds from FEMA and DHS on states’ agreement to assist the federal government in enforcing federal immigration law.
“The Trump Administration is trying to unlawfully reallocate federal homeland security funding based on a state’s willingness to comply with the Administration’s political agenda,” said Attorney General Clark. “But under the Constitution, it is Congress, not the President, who has the power of the purse. This reallocation also includes an unlawful attempt at drastically shortening the timeframe during which funds must be spent, effectively setting states on a race against time to use the funds before one year is up.”
FEMA awards recently announced cut funding to the 12 states joining in the lawsuit to just 51%, of the total amount that FEMA had previously stated it would provide to those states.
Vermont received its expected funds, but new rules require that the funds be spent within a year, instead of the three years planned for.
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Clark and the coalition argue that the reallocation of funds and restructured timeframe are unlawful and violate the federal Administrative Procedure Act. The attorneys general are seeking a temporary restraining order to block these actions.
Attorney General Clark is joined in this lawsuit by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington.
This lawsuit is the twenty-eighth case overall that Attorney General Clark has brought against the Trump Administration since President Trump took office in January. For more information on actions taken by the Attorney General on behalf of Vermonters, visit the website at ago.vermont.gov/ago-actions.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
