Judge Orders FEMA to Release Funds to Blue States

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated a previous ruling and must distribute millions in grants to nongovernment organizations in Democrat-controlled states.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell wrote that "FEMA's manual review process violates the court's preliminary injunction order" imposed in response to a lawsuit by several states over the Trump administration's blanket freeze on federal grants and loans.

He added that the agency "must immediately comply with the plain text" of the preliminary injunction order "not to pause or otherwise impede the disbursement of appropriated federal funds to the States."

The ruling comes just a week after FEMA moved to freeze $10 billion in disaster aid for nonprofit groups while it conducts a review to ensure that the funds cannot be used to help illegal immigrants.

The Justice Department had argued in a court filing that the agency was complying with the order, saying that "FEMA's manual review process has nothing to do with the [Office of Management and Budget] directive and is expressly not a pause or freeze on funding — it is instead a change to the manner in which FEMA processes and approves payment requests."

However, McConnell found that the review "essentially imposes an indefinite categorical pause on payments" and later described it as an attempt to "covertly" enact President Donald Trump's order to prevent sanctuary cities from receiving federal funding.

"The record makes clear that FEMA's manual review process imposes an indefinite pause on the disbursement of federal funds to the states, based on funding freezes dictated" partly by Trump's executive orders targeting sanctuary cities, McConnell wrote.

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