Attorney General Bonta Secures Court Order Against Trump Administration over Continued Disruptions to FEMA Funding

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granting the motion to enforce the preliminary injunction against the Trump Administration as states continue to face obstacles in accessing obligated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding, including FEMA funding for critical emergency preparedness and recovery programs. Specifically, the Court found that FEMA’s current freeze violates the Court’s preliminary injunction order. 

“Today’s court order makes it unequivocally clear: the Trump Administration’s reckless effort to hold up millions in emergency funds is unlawful,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We won’t stand idly by as we continue to see the Trump Administration breaking the law and will be closely monitoring to ensure that the Administration follows the court’s order and critical funds are released." 

In January, a coalition of 23 attorneys general, led by the attorneys general of California, New York, Rhode Island, Illinois, and Massachusetts, sued the Trump Administration over its attempt to freeze up to $3 trillion in federal funding. The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island quickly granted the attorneys general’s request for a temporary restraining order, blocking the freeze’s implementation until further order from the court. Soon after, the attorneys general filed motions to enforce and a preliminary injunction to stop the illegal freeze and preserve federal funding that Congress appropriated and that families, communities, and states rely on. The Court granted the motion to enforce, ordering the Administration to immediately comply with its temporary restraining order, and later, the motion for a preliminary injunction. Despite the coalition’s success in unlocking billions in wrongfully frozen funds through a preliminary injunction and earlier motion to enforce, the Trump Administration has continued to freeze millions of dollars in FEMA funding for critical emergency preparedness and recovery programs. The current FEMA freezes have not affected Los Angeles wildfire recovery funds but have affected wildfire recovery funding in other states, including for the Maui wildfires. Today’s order grants the motion the coalition made last week, asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to enforce its preliminary injunction against the Trump Administration’s FEMA freeze.

Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin in securing this motion. 

A copy of the order is available here.