A Rhode Island judge sided with Democratic state attorneys general on Friday, ruling that the Trump administration violated a court order by freezing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds allocated for disaster relief.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island found that the Trump administration violated his court order that ordered the administration to not pause or terminate federal financial assistance to states, including FEMA.
The case began following an email from the director at FEMA, which instructed there to be financial holds on all FEMA awards.
The attorneys general said that they had not received “substantial disbursement of funds on important grants since early February,” according to court documents. This included, as of March 12, at least 215 FEMA grants to at least 19 plaintiff states that remained frozen or otherwise inaccessible.
The Trump administration countered, stating that there isn’t a pause to funding but “simply an internal control where FEMA staff manually review all grant payment requests before disbursing payments to recipients,” the court documents said.
The Court sided with the plaintiffs, stating that the Trump administration must “immediately comply with the plain text of the preliminary injunction order not to pause or otherwise impede the disbursement of appropriate federal funds to the States.”
The Court added that the Trump administration must “immediately cease the challenged manual review process” that is underway at FEMA and resulted in an “indefinite pause” on the disbursement of FEMA funds.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is co-leading the litigation, as well as attorneys general from New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha applauded Judge McConnell’s order, stating that the “President is not above the law.”
“This Administration has been holding hostage FEMA funds that are critical to the health and safety of Rhode Islanders and Americans everywhere; funds that were lawfully allocated by the Congress to support natural disaster relief and other worthy initiatives” Neronha said in a statement.
“When the President and his Administration continuously flout court orders, they are testing the boundaries of what they can get away with, and toying with American lives in the process. Enough is enough, and the Court has made that crystal clear,” he said.
Neronha said the attorneys general will “continue our relentless pursuit of the rule of law, and we will not hesitate to ensure that the people of Rhode Island receive every dollar that they are due.”