(The Center Square) – Virginia is a participant in litigation seeking relief from FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security as the federal departments withhold money states use to fund counterterrorism and disaster response efforts.

Virginia in 2023 received $8.7 million through the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Emergency Management Performance Grant. The federal taxpayer money is used for purchases such as equipment for bomb squads, active shooter exercises, cyberattacks, natural disaster response, assessment of flood risks, management of wildfires, and search and rescue.

Filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, first-term Democratic state Attorney General Jay Jones affixed Virginia to the list of plaintiffs led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. Defendants are FEMA, Robert Fenton as senior official and administrator with FEMA, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

The states are asking the court to rule that imposing election conditions, immigration conditions and termination conditions are contrary to the Constitution and federal law and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Jones says FEMA and Homeland Security have attached conditions to the financial resource, including the ability to “terminate any federal grant at any time, for any reason” and to “withhold the money unless states change how they administer elections.”

“Critical funding for emergencies and counterterrorism efforts is not a bargaining chip, and Virginia will not be threatened or bullied into sharing sensitive voter data with the federal government,” Jones said. “Donald Trump knows that the People will hold him accountable at the ballot box less than four months from now, so he is doing everything in his power to undermine voters before they get to the ballot box. With these funding conditions, he’s prioritizing his partisan agenda over the health and safety of those he serves. We will not let this stand.”

Twenty-four other states and the District of Columbia are plaintiffs. Twenty-two have Democratic attorneys general, and two states use the name of their Democratic governor rather than their Republican attorney general, respectively. Hawaii is part of the lawsuit; its attorney general’s office is nonpartisan.

This post was originally published on The Center Square.