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Judge Bars Tying FEMA Grants to Trump's Election Changes
Newser • • nation
Key Points:
- A federal judge blocked a Trump administration policy that threatened to cut up to 20% of FEMA antiterrorism funds unless states adopted paper ballots or tightened voter citizenship verification.
- Judge Amir H. Ali ruled that attaching election-related conditions to federal emergency grants exceeded the administration’s authority and ordered these conditions removed from the grant process.
- Local governments in Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio sued FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, arguing the policy could disenfranchise eligible voters and was beyond federal jurisdiction.
- The FEMA grants, totaling about $1 billion annually, are intended to help cities prepare for terror attacks and have never before been used to influence election administration.
- The policy reflected President Trump’s disputed claims of widespread voter fraud, although his efforts to control election rules have had mixed success in recent Supreme Court decisions.
