A group of 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration, aiming to restore a canceled grant program. that helped states protect themselves against potential disaster damage.

The lawsuit says the administration in April illegally ended a multibillion-dollar Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program that was established under a 2018 law signed by President Donald Trump.

The states have asked a federal court in Massachusetts to force FEMA to reverse the termination of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which allocates billions of dollars for disaster prevention.

The legal complaint warns that not having the resources allocated by BRIC has been devastating for the states. “Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects that rely on these funds,” the lawsuit reads. The states further claim that the program’s cancellation was “unlawful” because it “flatly contravenes” Congress’s decision to continue funding it, in violation of the Constitution. The disaster relief appropriation was approved with bipartisan and majority support under President Bill Clinton’s administration (1993-2021) and has been maintained for nearly three decades, the plaintiffs noted. “In the name of reducing waste, fraud, and abuse, President Trump and his minions "They have once again endangered public safety by indiscriminately cutting pre-disaster hazard mitigation funding," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. The Democrat added that California, the program's largest beneficiary, is at "exceptional risk" from natural disasters.so ending that funding “hampers” prevention work.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes warned that the Trump administration has shown “open hostility” to providing disaster aid to states in an attempt to slash FEMA funding.

The White House has defended the cuts to FEMA as putting more responsibility on states for emergency response.

The lawsuit comes shortly after Texas was hit by devastating rains that killed more than 130 people on the July 4 holiday. Authorities are searching for more than 100 missing people.

Kerr County, where most of the deaths were recorded, has struggled to fund flood warnings and has faced criticism.

In that vein, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, said during a visit to Texas last week that the Trump administration is “empowering state and local officials to make the best decisions for their people.”

California and Arizona were joined in the lawsuit by Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington.