The County of Santa Clara along with the City and County of San Francisco, City of San José, City of Oakland and 25 other local governments have filed a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to impose unlawful conditions on more than $350 million in federal emergency and disaster preparedness funds administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These funds help keep nearly 8 million people living in the Bay Area safe and ensure regional preparedness for terrorism, natural disasters and upcoming global events like Super Bowl LX and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, asks the court to stop DHS and FEMA from using life-saving funds as leverage for unrelated political agendas. The administration is demanding that local governments participate in federal immigration enforcement policies and abandon diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as a condition of funding. The coalition of plaintiffs, comprised of 29 local governments, argue that these conditions are unconstitutional and exceed the administration’s authority, falling far outside what Congress authorized.
“For almost 75 years, Congress has been clear that one of the federal government’s core functions is to provide resources and support to state and local governments to ensure that they are prepared to respond to emergencies and disasters,” said Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti. “This federal administration is now unlawfully changing course, imposing unconstitutional conditions on critical grant funding that helps local governments hire first responders, fund search and rescue operations, retrofit facilities and train employees in disaster response. Governments shouldn’t have to pass a political litmus test to be able to care for their communities.”
“Emergency management is the backbone of safe and resilient communities, and threatening its funding puts real lives at risk,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu. “This funding means faster emergency response times, stronger regional coordination and better protection for our residents during disasters and terrorist attacks. The federal government’s politically motivated grant conditions demonstrate both a disregard for our Constitution and the well-being of our residents.”
Each year Congress appropriates billions of dollars to the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to distribute grants to state and local governments to support disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery efforts. State and local governments across the country rely on these federal grants to support their emergency-management functions and to deliver public safety, whether through fire department staffing, port and transit security, counterterrorism, or hazard mitigation projects like wildfire and flood prevention. Without these funds, local governments will be forced to divert scarce resources from other essential services, delay projects, or cancel them entirely.
“Santa Clara County is already facing a $1 billion loss in federal funding due to the Trump administration’s actions to cut Medicaid and food assistance for thousands of families in our community,” said Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Vice President Sylvia Arenas. “The potential loss of disaster preparedness funding adds insult to injury, threatening programs and essential personnel that help keep our communities safe. This is yet another alarming example of this federal administration putting politics over people.”
“The City of Oakland joined this lawsuit in order to protect $21 million in funding for our fire department,” said Oakland City Attorney Ryan Richardson. “Oakland’s ability to respond to fires and other emergencies is quite literally a matter of life and death, for our residents and for the residents of our neighboring cities. My fellow Oaklanders and I pay our federal taxes, and we expect our fair share of those resources to come back to our community. We ask a lot of our first responders. They put themselves in harm’s way to protect us. If they can be called upon to fight fires, we will certainly fight to protect the resources that they need and deserve.”
The stakes are high in communities across the country and especially in the Bay Area, which faces its own unique disaster risks due to the threat of earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and wildfires. In Santa Clara County, $3.6 million in annual funding is at risk, which represents nearly 43% of the County’s emergency management budget. This loss in funding will impact emergency preparedness efforts in advance of major upcoming global events like Super Bowl LX and the FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Santa Clara County in 2026. Cities like San Francisco and San José are already preparing for the influx of visitors to the region.
“San José’s size and location mean we carry enormous responsibility for the safety and resilience of nearly one million residents,” said San José City Attorney Nora Frimann. “When disaster strikes, seconds matter – and so do the resources required to respond and recover. That’s why we are joining our neighbors in advocating for the release of FEMA dollars to protect American lives.”
The coalition of 29 local governments represent major population centers that are collectively responsible for the safety and well-being of tens of millions of residents. These jurisdictions meet that responsibility by preparing for potential disasters and responding to emergencies in an almost untold number of scenarios, from wildfires, floods, earthquakes, severe weather events, infectious diseases and invasive agricultural pests, to mass shootings, acts of terrorism, or threats of physical attacks at busy international airports, mass-transit systems, large-scale special events, ports where large ships load and unload goods critical to the national economy and more. The grant conditions being imposed by the federal administration would force local governments to adopt the administration’s political agenda or risk losing critical funding.
“The Trump administration is trying to force governments to abandon policies that keep people safe,” said Jill Habig, founder and CEO of Public Rights Project. “Tying federal safety and security funding to these demands is both coercive and dangerous. These funds are life-saving resources that communities rely on to prepare for and recover from wildfires, earthquakes, terrorism and other crises.”
The County of Santa Clara and the City and County of San Francisco are the lead plaintiffs. Public Rights Project is representing most of the additional plaintiffs. The plaintiffs are:
- Alameda, CA
- Bellingham, WA
- Berkeley, CA
- City and County of San Francisco, CA
- Culver City, CA
- King County, WA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Los Angeles County, CA
- Los Angeles County Fire District, CA
- Marin County, CA
- Oakland, CA
- Palo Alto, CA
- Pasadena, CA
- Petaluma, CA
- Pierce County, WA
- Sacramento, CA
- San Diego County, CA
- San José, CA
- San Mateo County, CA
- Santa Clara County, CA
- Santa Monica, CA
- Santa Rosa, CA
- Snohomish County, WA
- Sonoma County, CA
- Sonoma Sanitation, CA
- Sonoma Water, CA
- Tucson, AZ
The case is County of Santa Clara v. Noem (Case No. 3:25-cv-8330) and a copy of the complaint can be found here.
About the County of Santa Clara, CA
The County of Santa Clara government serves a diverse, multicultural population of 1.9 million residents in Santa Clara County, Calif., making it more populous than 14 states in the United States. The County provides essential services to its residents, including public health protection, environmental stewardship, medical services through the County of Santa Clara Health System, child and adult protection services, homelessness prevention and solutions, roads, park services, libraries, emergency response to disasters, protection of minority communities and those under threat, access to a fair criminal justice system, and many other public benefits.