Bay Area cities and county sue Trump administration over emergency and disaster preparedness funds

"A coalition of local governments led by Santa Clara County and San Francisco are suing the Trump administration over attempts to impose conditions on more than $350 million in emergency and disaster preparedness funds across the 27 jurisdictions. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday, asks a federal judge to block the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency from conditioning critical funding on each city or county's participation in immigrant enforcement efforts and the abandonment of diversity, equity and inclusion policies."

""for 75 years, the federal government has placed this core function of emergency preparedness and disaster response above politics." "We all have a right to support in the face of calamity, but the Trump administration wants to put an end to an era of prioritizing humanity over politics," he said. "Instead, the administration wants to leverage these funds, the promise of safety and security to advance its own political agenda." Local governments rely on the dollars from FEMA and DHS to retrofit buildings, fund search and rescue operations and purchase equipment needed to respond to disaster, LoPresti said."

Santa Clara County and San Francisco filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA from conditioning more than $350 million in emergency and disaster preparedness funds. The legal challenge targets requirements linking funding to local participation in immigrant enforcement and to abandoning diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Local officials argue emergency preparedness and disaster response must remain apolitical and that FEMA and DHS dollars fund retrofits, search-and-rescue operations, and critical equipment. City and county leaders characterize the conditioning as unlawful and assert the federal government lacks authority to impose such political conditions on lifesaving funds.

Read at The Mercury News