Dive Brief:
- A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant notice for fiscal year 2026 states the agency will withhold 20% of Homeland Security Grant program funding from states and “high-risk urban election jurisdictions” until they prove they’ve complied with the Trump administration’s election security requirements, including transitioning from electronic voting systems to hand-marked paper ballots and verifying the citizenship of all voters and election workers.
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The more than $1 billion available through FEMA’s Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Grant Program helps state and local governments improve coordination among law enforcement agencies, strengthen critical infrastructure cybersecurity, protect the integrity of U.S. elections, support border security efforts and enhance protection at large events.
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FEMA has restricted or rescinded multiple funding opportunities over conditions regarding federal immigration enforcement and diversity, equity and inclusion policies, triggering lawsuits from states and local governments.
Dive Insight:
FEMA announced funding opportunities across seven preparedness grant programs last month to help communities fight terrorism and other threats. Robert Fenton, the senior official performing the duties of the FEMA administrator until the Senate approves a permanent chief, said in a statement that the funding opportunities are “just one way that the Department is supporting state and local governments and aligning their efforts with national security priorities.”
Salem, Oregon, sued FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security on June 30 for tying disaster funding to immigration enforcement, gender identity and DEI policies.
State attorneys general sued FEMA and DHS in February after the agency abruptly ended grants that assist states in preventing targeted violence and terrorist attacks.
Last fall, a district court judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from tying more than $350 million in emergency and disaster preparedness funds to federal immigration enforcement policies and DEI initiatives. after Santa Clara County, the city and county of San Francisco, the city of Oakland, and a coalition of 26 other local governments sued.
A coalition of state and the District of Columbia attorneys general won a lawsuit in December to stop the Trump administration from reallocating homeland security funding away from states unwilling to enforce federal immigration law. The Trump administration abandoned its appeal in that case in May.
“I will always fight to ensure New York receives the resources we need to keep people safe,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement at the time.
The New York comptroller’s office estimates the New York Police Department should receive $182 million in security and counter-terrorism grants in the city’s fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget. These grants are “the primary source of funding for high threat, high-density urban areas,” the comptroller states. New York City stands to lose tens of millions of dollars if 20% of its Homeland Security Grant Program funding is withheld.
