By Dietrich Knauth (Reuters) -A federal judge in Rhode Island on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting $233 million in counterterrorism grant funds for Democratic-led states, including New York and Illinois. Eleven states sued the Trump administration on Monday over last-minute changes to counterterrorism grants, saying that Republican President Donald Trump was retaliating […]
Politics
Judge blocks Trump from cutting counterterrorism funds for Democratic-led states
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By Dietrich Knauth
(Reuters) -A federal judge in Rhode Island on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting $233 million in counterterrorism grant funds for Democratic-led states, including New York and Illinois.
Eleven states sued the Trump administration on Monday over last-minute changes to counterterrorism grants, saying that Republican President Donald Trump was retaliating against Democratic-led states by redirecting funding away from them just as the fiscal year ends.
The states said they needed a next-day restraining order, or else the funds would expire before they had a chance to challenge Trump’s action in court.
U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy agreed, saying the funds had been cut in a “slapdash” manner that likely violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which prohibits the government from making arbitrary or capricious decisions.
McElroy issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the Trump administration from diverting the counterterrorism funds until the court case has a chance to play out.
The timing of the funding cuts was concerning, McElroy said, because they were made just as the fiscal year was ending and just three days after a different federal judge blocked the Trump administration from withholding DHS funds from 20 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia.
The specific funding cuts were made on Saturday, when the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency announced final annual funding numbers for the Homeland Security Grant Program, FEMA’s largest such program. Those grants pay for states’ counterterrorism and emergency preparedness projects.
The 11 states and the District of Columbia said they had been expecting $459 million in funds from the Homeland Security Grant Program, and the Trump administration had revised that down to $226 million.
Some states were particularly hard hit, with Illinois taking a 69% reduction in funds, and New York receiving a 79% reduction, according to the lawsuit.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Berkrot)