The Trump administration is being sued by 20 states that are seeking to block the cancellation of a grant program that helped protect against potential natural disasters.
The big picture: “By unilaterally shutting down FEMA’s flagship pre-disaster mitigation program, Defendants have acted unlawfully and violated core separation of powers principles,” says the lawsuit that was filed in Boston, Mass., on Wednesday on the program, which has helped states, local and territorial governments and tribal nations work to reduce their hazard risk.
Driving the news: In April, FEMA announced that it would end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program and cancel all BRIC applications from fiscal years 2020-2023.
The post announcing the cuts was titled: “FEMA Ends Wasteful, Politicized Grant Program, Returning Agency to Core Mission of Helping Americans Recovering From Natural Disasters.” It appears to have since been removed.
The suit led by Washington and Massachusetts argues that by “refusing to spend funds Congress directed toward BRIC or trying to spend them on other programs,” the administration had violated the Constitution and unlawfully intruded on Congress’ “power of the purse.”
Zoom in: “The impact of the shutdown has been devastating. Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding,” the states argue in the suit.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Dillon B
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
