A group of 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday morning, aiming to restore a canceled grant program that helped states protect against potential disaster damage.
The lawsuit says the administration in April illegally ended a multibillion-dollar Federal Emergency Management Agency program that was established under a 2018 law signed by President Donald Trump.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, also asks the court to declare that FEMA’s current leader “is acting as FEMA administrator unlawfully.”
David Richardson has been acting administrator since Trump appointed him in May, a position that avoids Senate confirmation and a statutory requirement that a FEMA administrator have experience in emergency management. Richardson is a former Marine officer and expert in weapons of mass destruction who has not worked in emergency management.
