Harrisburg, PA – Today, Governor Josh Shapiro sued the Trump Administration over its illegal effort to hold millions of critical homeland security dollars hostage in another attempt to control Pennsylvania’s elections.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the unlawful imposition of conditions that require states to change the way they administer elections in order to receive funds awarded through the 2026 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP).
The Trump Administration is attempting to restrict 20 percent of states’ total funding to prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from catastrophic disasters. As a result, Pennsylvania would lose nearly $6 million in funding to support state, county, and local governments unless it adopted the Trump Administration’s election policy preferences.
This is not the first time that the Trump Administration has tried to withhold homeland security funding from Pennsylvania. Governor Shapiro prevailed in a previous lawsuit after the Trump Administration withheld millions from Pennsylvania’s 2025 HSGP grant.
“The Trump Administration is holding critical funding for homeland security and disaster response hostage in their latest attempt to take over our elections and perpetuate baseless conspiracy theories,” said Governor Shapiro. “Withholding this funding will make our communities less safe and would be dangerous under any circumstance, but doing this in an attempt to undermine states’ authority over elections is reckless and unconstitutional. I’m going to court to protect the people of Pennsylvania from this brazen attempt to withhold vital resources from our law enforcement officers and first responders.”
Among the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s new conditions to receive this critical funding are requirements to submit Pennsylvania’s voter registration list and the name of all poll workers to a faulty federal system that has been shown to be unreliable and outdated, transition their voting systems from reliable and proven voting systems to unproven technology shown to result in errors, and to change the Commonwealth’s existing post-election audits to a process that follows nonexistent guidelines set by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
In addition to these unlawful conditions, the lawsuit challenges the Administration’s attempt to reinstate immigration-based conditions for DHS and FEMA funding — nearly identical to those previously struck down. If allowed to continue, states would be forced to devote scarce resources to do the work of the federal government on civil immigration enforcement, beyond what state laws allow or require, in order to receive funding through HSGP and other vital grant emergency management programs.
The lawsuit also challenges the Trump Administration’s decision to condition all 2026 FEMA funding based on the agency’s own assessment of a state’s ability to align with the Administration’s priorities, potentially politicizing emergency responses.
Impact on Local Preparedness
The Homeland Security Grant Program provides essential resources for state and local agencies to:
- Train public safety personnel in incident management, threat detection, and emergency response procedures;
- Purchase equipment such as chemical and biological detection devices, robotics, drones, and protective gear; and
- Maintain communication systems and public messaging infrastructure for coordinated disaster response.
Without this funding, counties and municipalities face significant gaps in their ability to prepare for and respond to emergencies. The loss would:
- Limit training and continuing education for emergency managers;
- Reduce the number of qualified personnel at state and county levels; and
- Undermine communications networks and mutual aid agreements essential to disaster response and recovery.
All 67 counties across Pennsylvania rely on federal HSGP funding to support local emergency management. Established in 2003, the program helps fund critical preparedness and response efforts statewide.
Pennsylvania’s Elections Remain Safe, Secure, Free, and Fair
Since taking office, the Shapiro Administration has promoted the security of the Commonwealth's elections through initiatives like the Administration’s Ready to Vote Toolkit and taken action to defend every Pennsylvanian’s right to vote.
- In January 2023, Governor Shapiro appointed Al Schmidt, a Republican, to serve as Secretary of the Commonwealth and oversee Pennsylvania’s elections, promoting the bipartisan administration of elections.
- In September 2023, the Governor implemented automatic voter registration (AVR) for eligible Commonwealth residents obtaining driver licenses and ID cards at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) driver and photo license centers. By taking this step, Pennsylvania joined more than 20 states to promote election security, save taxpayer dollars, and streamline the voter registration process. In April, Republican Auditor General Timothy DeFoor released a report showing the Commonwealth’s AVR system is safe and effective.
- In July 2025, Secretary Schmidt announced the Department of State (DOS) had redesigned provisional ballot envelopes for the 2025 general election, leading to an 11.3 percent decrease in the number of ballot rejections due to envelope errors compared to the 2024 cycle.
- In April 2026, Governor Shapiro filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s signing of Executive Order 14399, which seeks to establish a list of eligible voters through DHS and limit how elections may be conducted by using the United States Post Service (USPS) to illegally and significantly restrict mail-in voting.
Despite the Trump Administration’s now repeated attempts to condition Pennsylvania’s ability to respond to emergencies — and strip state powers to administer elections — the Governor will continue standing up against the overreach of the federal government, protecting Pennsylvanians’ right to vote and ensuring the Commonwealth remains ready to respond to emergencies.
The lawsuit is led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and in addition to Governor Shapiro, is being joined by California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C, as well as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.