MORE THAN A DOZEN Bay Area jurisdictions are again suing the administration of President Donald Trump for withholding federal funding previously authorized by Congress, this time seeking to unlock money for emergency services dispersed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday aims to compel the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to disburse $350 million in funding that was appropriated for local firefighting, earthquake and flood preparedness, port and transportation security, terrorism response, and other emergency-related programs.
It was joined by a total of 29 jurisdictions in California, Arizona and Washington, including four jurisdictions in Sonoma County.
Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti announced the litigation in a press conference in San Jose on Wednesday along with the city attorneys of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
Other Bay Area jurisdictions that signed onto the civil complaint include the cities of Alameda, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Petaluma and Santa Rosa, along with the counties of Marin, San Mateo and Sonoma. The Sonoma Community Development Commission, Sonoma County Water Agency, and Sonoma County Sanitation District also joined the suit.
The administration has demanded an end to programs incorporating considerations of diversity, equity and inclusion, policies known as DEI initiatives, into employment practices, and has sought to condition the release of the money on agreeing to end such programs, as well as cooperate more with immigration enforcement.
“Local governments shouldn’t have to pass a political litmus test to be able to care for their communities,” LoPresti said during the press conference outside the Santa Clara County Government Center on Hedding Street, which was also streamed on the county’s Facebook page.
“Simply put, threatening this funding puts real lives at risk.”
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu
Some of the funding awarded in the Bay Area that has been held up includes $3 million for terrorism prevention on public transportation in San Francisco, $23 million for flood prevention in Marin County impacting 4,000 residents, and $3.6 million for Santa Clara County to be used for terrorism and disaster mitigation, according to San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu’s office.
“Simply put, threatening this funding puts real lives at risk,” Chiu said.
Roughly 43% of Santa Clara County’s emergency management budget is funded by the federal FEMA grants. The county will host the Super Bowl in February and the FIFA World Cup next summer.
San Jose City Attorney Nora Frimann also pointed out that there were about 10,000 residential addresses in designated wildfire zones in San Jose and that the area is one of the most seismically active in the nation and said the federal funding was critical to reducing risks from those threats.
Sylvia Arenas, District 1 representative and vice president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said the county would have to pull money from other essential resources to make up for the lost funding. She accused the administration of “putting politics over people’s lives.”
Arenas said various emergency management projects could be delayed or canceled.
The grants are awarded through a variety of specific programs funded by Congress that the DHS is obligated to pay out once applications are approved, including the Emergency Management Performance Grant Program, Homeland Security Grant Program, Urban Areas Security Initiative, Transit Security Grant Program, Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Program, Assistance to Firefighters Grant, Fire Prevention and Safety Grants, Port Security Grant Program, Securing the Cities program, and the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System.
Funding held for ‘political retribution’
Jill Habig, CEO of the nonprofit legal rights organization Public Rights Project, said at the press conference that the administration was holding up critical funding for political purposes.
“The Trump administration is weaponizing taxpayer dollars for political retribution. This is not just unconstitutional. It’s dangerous,” said Jill Habig, CEO of the Public Rights Project.
Beyond attempting to get the jurisdictions to end DEI policies, DHS has also conditioned the release of the money on complying with any potential future executive orders, something that LoPresti also said was not legal and would not be agreed to.
Like previous lawsuits involving San Francisco and Santa Clara County against the Trump administration’s attempt to withhold federal grants, the complaint argues that the executive branch cannot stop paying out money appropriated by Congress, cannot set additional conditions that were originally included in the legislation authorizing the money, and cannot use “capricious” or arbitrary criteria to target jurisdictions or withhold funding.