PA Gov. Shapiro Sues Trump Administration Over Disaster Funding Cut Threats

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has joined a multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration for requiring them to comply with election and immigration conditions to receive billions in federal disaster funding.

The 85-page lawsuit, filed on Thursday, wants a federal court to declare the new conditions unlawful. The Trump administration is demanding states alter the way they administer elections and is requiring them to turn over their voter registration lists and the names of poll workers to the federal government.

The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to withhold as much as 20 percent of the states' congressionally approved Homeland Security Grant Program funds unless they capitulate to those and other demands.

According to Shapiro's office, that would amount to approximately $6 million for Pennsylvania.

Shapiro said the Homeland Security Grant Program provides essential resources for state and local agencies to:

• Train public safety personnel in incident management, threat detection, and emergency response procedures;
• Purchase equipment such as chemical and biological detection devices, robotics, drones, and protective gear; and
• Maintain communication systems and public messaging infrastructure for coordinated disaster response.

“The Trump Administration is holding critical funding for homeland security and disaster response hostage in their latest attempt to take over our elections and perpetuate baseless conspiracy theories,” Shaprio said in a statement.

“Withholding this funding will make our communities less safe and would be dangerous under any circumstance, but doing this in an attempt to undermine states’ authority over elections is reckless."

Shapiro termed the Trump administration's threat "a brazen attempt to withhold vital resources from our law enforcement officers and first responders.”

In addition to the election issues, the lawsuit also challenges the administration's attempt to reinstate immigration-based conditions for Department of Homeland Security and FEMA funding that are nearly identical to those struck down last year.

Shapiro contended that if these conditions are permitted, states would be forced to devote scarce resources to do the work of the federal government on civil immigration enforcement - beyond what state laws allow or require - to receive funding through the HSGP and other vital grant emergency management programs.

Additionally, the lawsuit challenges the Trump administration's decision to condition all 2026 FEMA funding based on the agency’s assessment of a state’s willingness to align with the administration's priorities. The lawsuit asserts that potentially politicize emergency responses.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and interim administrator Robert Fenton.

The lawsuit is led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and, in addition to Shapiro, is being joined by California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C, as well as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.