Federal court rules in favor of El Paso County, other local governments on FEMA election requirements for funding

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- A federal judge has struck down new FEMA funding rules that tied public safety grants to election policy requirements for local governments.

As ABC-7 previously reported, El Paso County joined the lawsuit against the requirement change last month, challenging the Department of Homeland Security's decision to withhold 20% of funding for certain grant programs unless states and some local governments comply with new federal requirements governing how elections are conducted.

On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted partial summary judgment to six counties and cities including El Paso, ruling that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were not authorized by Congress to require changes to voting systems, election audits, voter and ballot records, and citizenship checks from localities for them to receive their full federal funding for counterterrorism programs.

The court denied the suit's request for a permanent injunction against the federal government.

“El Paso County has run elections responsibly for decades,” said El Paso County Attorney
Christina Sanchez in a release. “Conditioning our counterterrorism funding on an unproven citizenship verification system was reckless, and today’s ruling stops this gross abuse of power in its tracks.”

In the opinion for the judgment, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali ruled while statue does give FEMA "the authority to fund projects proposed by states and high-risk urban areas; it does not give FEMA authority to use the possibility of grants to induce states or high-risk urban areas to carry out the federal government’s preferred projects at their own expense."

El Paso and 5 other counties and cities, including Travis, Harris and Dallas counties, sued DHS and FEMA, arguing the agencies had no authority to tie anti-terrorism funding to election requirements. The plaintiffs were represented in court by Protect Democracy, the Brennan Center for Justice, Jacobson Lawyers Group, and Public Rights Project, as well as county counsel.