A federal magistrate judge in Oregon ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration could not withhold emergency preparation money from states that failed to provide updated population counts that accounted for deportations.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency imposed the requirement in October, adding a hurdle for states in order to access hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to buy equipment, pay staff and otherwise prepare for disasters. The Census Bureau is responsible for population estimates across the country.
The ruling, by Magistrate Judge Amy Potter, also said FEMA could not arbitrarily shorten the window in which states could use the emergency grants or money awarded through another program focused on investments in homeland security. The administration had sought to shorten the three-year grants to a single year.
A group of 11 states filed the lawsuit last month: Michigan, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Kentucky.
Judge Potter, who was appointed to the bench by district court judges in September, found that the Trump administration went beyond the legal framework around the grant programs in adding the new requirements of the states, and violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
Trump administration officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling. In October, a FEMA spokesman, Daniel Llargues, said that the agency had enacted the policy “to prevent fraud and abuse.”
It was the second federal ruling in two weeks against the Trump administration and in favor of states arguing that the government was illegally limiting their access to funds to prepare for disasters.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration could not unilaterally cancel a grant program that helps state and local governments pay for projects that make communities more resilient to extreme weather events and other disasters.
State and local leaders have said the new grant requirements and limitations and program cancellations have significantly slowed recovery efforts after disasters and could impede disaster preparations.
Scott Dance is a Times reporter who covers how climate change and extreme weather are transforming society.
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