20 States are Suing FEMA for Canceling Funds for Natural Disaster Preparedness

Amid major flooding disasters in Texas, New York and New Jersey, Democratic states are suing to recoup the federal grants they were previously awarded to mitigate future hazards.

Donald Trump Letitia James
New York Attorney General Letitia James is among the Democratic AGs suing Trump over frozen FEMA funds. Dave Sanders/AP

A coalition of states — including New York and New Jersey, which just experienced flash flooding that killed two — are suing the Trump administration over its abrupt cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars of natural disaster preparedness funding.

The coalition of 19 Democratic attorneys general and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of violating “core separation of powers principles” by canceling funding for disaster resilience that had been directed by Congress and already awarded by FEMA to the states.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after devastating floods killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, Texas, and during a 2025 summer that has been drenched by a record-breaking 1,200 reports of floods across the country, more than double the average.