Booths await voters during the May 19, 2026 primary election at Temple View Elementary School in Idaho Falls, Idaho. (Photo by Pat Sutphin/Idaho Capital Sun)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s guidelines for states to apply for funds under counterterrorism grant programs may include illegal claims related to election administration, Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, sent notices to states last month about available federal funds for non-disaster grants under the Homeland Security Grant Program, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and the Transit Security Grant Program.
Those communications included “apparent attempts to force communities to comply with the Trump administration’s political demands” or risk losing $200 million in federal funding, the newspaper said letter said.
“As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it is deeply troubling that DHS and FEMA under Donald Trump continue to manipulate the very funding that emerged from a national tragedy,” they wrote. “Political games involving counterterrorism resources undermine public safety and deprive first responders of the resources they need to do their jobs.”
The panel’s 15 Democrats, led by ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, signed the letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting FEMA Administrator Robert Fenton.
Spokespeople for DHS, FEMA and committee Republicans did not immediately return requests for comment behind schedule Thursday. A White House spokesperson referred a request for comment to DHS.
SAVE computer system
The department is withholding up to 20% of congressionally appropriated funding for the programs unless states and cities update their election laws, the Democrats wrote. Among other things, the administration wants states to utilize the department’s powerful SAVE computer system to verify each voter’s citizenship, the letter said.
The department also continues to withhold more than $600 million for 2025 funding, lawmakers said.
Some of the government’s demands are impracticable or illegal under federal court rulings or state law, they said.
For example, a federal judge spoke two days before the notice went to the states governed that states could not utilize the SAVE system to verify voter eligibility.
“It is unclear how or why DHS and FEMA issued guidance (notice of funding opportunities) that would intentionally contradict a court ruling,” they wrote. “To date, FEMA has not provided a revised (notice) consistent with court orders regarding the use of the SAVE system.”
“Costly and impossible” for states.
Several requirements, made nearly five months before the November midterm elections and a month before grant applications are due, “are costly and impossible to meet within the administration’s unrealistic timeline,” the letter said.
Other criteria are unclear, such as the requirement to “reconcile voters and ballots using a method that the secretary has not disclosed,” the Democrats wrote. The ministry also hasn’t said how manual audits will need to be conducted after the election.
Lawmakers called on the administration to return to 2024 guidance that would clear up confusion about grant program requirements and their legality, release materials that supported the department’s decision to tie grant funding to election security, and immediately lift any “express or constructive” blocks on last year’s grants.
Constitutional mandate
The changes would “very likely” harm states’ election integrity, said David Becker, executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, in a media briefing early Thursday.
Becker predicted that the order would be “very easy to block” in court.
The department’s requirements are not authorized by Congress or the Constitution, which authorizes states to conduct elections, Becker said.
“This administration either does not understand or blatantly disregards the constitutional mandate that gives states the power to hold elections,” he said.
