Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has disbursed billions of dollars in grants to state and local governments to help with security and prevent terrorism.
This funding has helped Everett, Wash., bolster its water and wastewater plants’ cybersecurity infrastructure. It paid for automated license plate readers in New Jersey and the salaries of state employees who, according to court documents, “provide cybersecurity training, plan risk mitigation efforts and combat domestic violent extremism.”
And in New York, the grants have paid for National Guard members to patrol the subway, an increased law enforcement presence at the northern border, and 12 F.B.I.-certified bomb squads across the state.
But the flow of funds is now being imperiled by FEMA officials, who are nearly two months behind in posting the latest application guidelines for the grants.
The new application is expected to reflect additional requirements for cities and states to demonstrate compliance with President Trump’s priorities on immigration enforcement and dismantling diversity programs. But no one has seen the application, leaving longtime funding recipients in limbo and feeling increasingly anxious.
In a letter last month to Kristi Noem, President Trump’s homeland security secretary, a coalition of associations that represent local and state officials wrote that the delay hurts “response and recovery capabilities across the country, and puts critical infrastructure at risk.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat of New York, followed up with her own letter this week to Ms. Noem. She wrote that the funding uncertainty puts “New York communities at a greater risk than perhaps anywhere else in the nation,” singling out the potential vulnerability of “the largest Jewish community outside of Israel.”
After the joint Israeli-U.S. attack last month on Iran’s nuclear facilities, there have been heightened fears that Jewish communities across the country could be targeted in response. During the last fiscal year, FEMA distributed about $1 billion through its homeland security grant program for states to use to protect against terror threats.
New York received about $220 million from that program, with a large share flowing to law enforcement agencies in New York City and its suburbs. The city’s Police Department, for example, used the money to pay intelligence analysts and teams that monitor for radiological weapons like “dirty bombs.” (Last month, FEMA awarded about $94 million to Jewish faith-based groups nationwide to help them increase protections against attacks.)
The Police Department and other large departments most likely have sufficient resources to fill gaps if there are delays or if the money does not materialize, said Jackie Bray, commissioner of the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
Smaller agencies, which are far more reliant on these federal grants, will be in greater trouble, she said. Even so, Ms. Bray noted concerns that funding cuts or uncertainty could hamper local and state agencies’ ability to safely secure big events like the United Nations General Assembly and the FIFA World Cup.
“There is certain training for SWAT teams, bomb detection squads and chemical or biological responses that would just stop happening,” she said. “This is exactly the wrong moment to start cutting the funding that keeps our local emergency managers, counterterrorism teams and targeted violence prevention experts functioning.”
Trina Sheets, the executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, a group representing state emergency management directors, estimated that about $2.4 billion in FEMA grants that Congress had appropriated was being held up. This includes about $81 million meant to help protect international borders.
“It is critical we have the ability to appropriately prepare for future disasters, especially at a time when the federal government is telling state and local governments they need to do more,” Ms. Sheets said.
The delay and uncertainty are leading smaller localities to contemplate layoffs and consider a future in which the federal government plays an even smaller role in responding to emergencies.
Since Mr. Trump took office, there have been rolling cuts and clawbacks at FEMA. Mr. Trump and Ms. Noem have both argued that states should shoulder more of the burden for such work.
In one case, FEMA cut $325 million in grants for New York, much of it destined for essential flood mitigation efforts in New York City. Mr. Trump’s focus on cutting funding that helps undocumented immigrants has also disrupted the distribution of money to communities affected by natural disasters.
After the catastrophic floods in Texas, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that FEMA was slow to activate certain teams that coordinate response and search-and-rescue efforts.
Local officials also worry how about the response to these events has become far more politicized, particularly as the Trump administration wields the threat of withholding federal funding to bring institutions and municipalities to heel.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, declined to say when the necessary paperwork would be published so that states could apply for grants. She said in a statement that Ms. Noem has “directed D.H.S. to implement additional controls to ensure that all grant money going out is consistent with law and does not go to fraud, waste or abuse, as in the past. The open borders gravy train is over.”
The Trump administration was required by law to release the applications in mid-May.
Weeks earlier, the Department of Homeland Security updated the terms and conditions for grants to require that beneficiaries cooperate with immigration enforcement. A coalition of 20 state attorneys general sued FEMA, saying the requirements were illegal and would cause irreparable harm if states could not access the money.
The Trump administration narrowed which grant programs were covered under the new terms, but the legal challenge is continuing.
The delay and possible loss of the federal funds has state and local officials across the country worrying they won’t have enough to plug the gaps — particularly in less populous regions with smaller tax bases and fiscal reserves.
Ms. Bray said the funding for National Guard patrols in New York City’s subway could probably be stretched out for another year. A partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies testing vulnerabilities at the northern border could last as long as 18 months, she said, but not much longer.
In Wyoming, Lynn Budd, director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security, said the salaries for 17 of the 23 people on her staff were paid with federal grants. Next year, she said, she will ask Wyoming lawmakers to fund her office with state money, but she is “not optimistic that will happen.”
“We’re planners. It is what we do,” Ms. Budd said. “But this uncertainty is hard. We need the parameters for what federal funding will look like to know how to plan.”
In Colorado, each county is required to employ a person to coordinate its emergency management response. That role is often funded by federal grants. Kevin R. Klein, the director of the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said many counties are “going to need to cut their staff.”
“So what happens then is that responsibility for emergency management gets placed on somebody else who has no emergency management experience,” he said.
Across Alaska, about 500,000 acres have burned this wildfire season. Bryan Fisher, director of the state’s homeland security and emergency management agency, has been telling local officials that they will need to find other ways to pay workers who help people affected by the fires.
Mr. Fisher said he understood why federal officials would want states to take on more responsibility for emergency response. But he said that transition would take time, and would make federally funded local emergency management roles even more indispensable.
“I’m pretty impatient and frustrated,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t make any sense to any of us. I think every state will tell you we’re ready to apply for these funds and administer them like we always do.”
Benjamin Oreskes is a reporter covering New York State politics and government for The Times.
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