Disaster preparedness exercises are important for first responders and community members alike. Many such events are funded by grants from the federal government.
The County of Marin has joined 28 other local government agencies in a lawsuit against the federal government that challenges unlawful and unrelated conditions in grants from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agenda (FEMA).
The new conditions relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and immigration. The DEI condition prohibits DHS grantees from operating any program that promotes DEI. The immigration condition requires grantees to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officials, including sharing information and resources and engaging in joint enforcement operations.
The City and County of San Francisco, the County of Santa Clara, and the Public Rights Project are leading the litigation. The complaint, filed September 30 in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of California, alleges these new grant conditions violate the Spending Clause and Separation of Powers provisions of the U.S. Constitution, and the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
The County of Marin receives DHS and FEMA funding each year to support hazard mitigation, emergency preparedness, alert and warning programs, and emergency response activities. In fiscal year 2023-24, the County received more than $5.5 million in DHS grants and over $7 million in FEMA funding to respond to federally declared disasters. The County recently applied for $22 million in DHS/FEMA funding to support flood mitigation efforts in the Santa Venetia neighborhood that is vulnerable to rising waters of San Francisco Bay.
“This federal funding is critical for the operation of the County’s Office of Emergency Management and plays an essential role in our ability to respond to disasters,” said County Counsel Brian Washington. “The DEI-related conditions have no connection to the grant programs at issue and far exceed the authority delegated by Congress to DHS.”
Enhancing disaster preparedness is one of the six priorities stated by the Board of Supervisors in its annual budget. For decades, the County and its local partners have worked to help prepare Marin communities for natural threats such as wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, severe winter storms, and gradual sea level rise. The commitment to such resilience was illustrated during its September 30 meeting when the Board passed a National Preparedness Month proclamationthat, in part, emphasized the need for equitable access to resources that are often funded by federal grants.
This is the third lawsuit the County of Marin has joined against the federal government this year. In July, it joined a suit to protect jurisdictions from unconstitutional overreach and the federal administration’s demand for cooperation with immigration enforcement. In September, it joined a suit to protect federal grants for essential community programs from similar unlawful conditions.
Other plaintiffs in the September 30 suit are:
- the cities of Alameda, Culver City, Los Angeles, Oakland, Palo Alto, Pasadena, Petaluma, Sacramento, Santa Monica, Santa Rosa, Bellingham (WA), and Tucson (AZ);
- the counties of Los Angeles, Martin Luther King Jr. (WA), Pierce (WA), San Diego, San Mateo, Snohomish (WA), and Sonoma;
- the LA County Fire Protection District, the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, the Sonoma County Water Agency, and the Sonoma Valley County Sanitation District.
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