Monroe County has joined a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration opposing the threatened loss of federal funding over diversity, equity, and inclusion and other social justice and climate policies.
If the federal government follows through on the cancellation of grants over DEI policies, the Monroe County Airport Authority stands to lose out on about $9 million in funding.
The threat involves what the administration sees as non-compliance with a series of President Donald Trump’s executive orders that purport to, among other things, restore merit-based hiring and end, "illegal discrimination.” But the orders do not define what DEI is, and at points is at odds with existing federal non-discrimination laws, according to the lawsuit.
“The motivation is politics,” County Executive Adam Bello said. “And the effect is a couple things. One is chaos. I think in many ways, that's the point. And the second effect is that it's going to hurt real people.”
The move to sue comes as the county nears its time for applying for federal grants. The lawsuit is a joint filing alongside the County of Sacramento, and the cities of Fresno, St. Paul, and a number of other municipalities.
Monroe County launched its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in 2021, with a stated goal of promoting fair hiring practices in the county. The program had bipartisan support at the time. For example, Gantt's Law, the 2021 legislation which established the county government's first minority and women-owned business utilization program, was adopted through a then-Republican majority legislature.
"Enough is enough," Bello said. "Monroe County is not going to be put in a position where we're either going to lose millions of dollars in infrastructure dollars that go to our airport, or dismantle perfectly legal programs that are constitutional, that we're allowed to have, that are actually working, and that were created in a bipartisan, unanimous way."
Fresno this week received an email from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development stating that officials were questioning the city’s certification that it would administer federal Community Development Block Grant funds “in conformity with applicable laws, including Executive Orders.” The email directed Fresno to “remove all references to the words ‘equity,’ ‘environmental justice,’ and all transgender references, and provide assurances that ‘[t]he City of Freson shall not use grant funds to promote ‘gender ideology.’” The administration set a deadline or noon Thursday to comply or officials could disapprove its funding plan.
The administration’s “unlawful attempts to repurpose congressionally established grant programs to serve unilateral policy goals have placed at risk hundreds of millions of dollars in funding already awarded or soon to be awarded” to Fresno, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims that, along with HUD, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Transportation "have imposed vague and unauthorized conditions on federal grants to coerce compliance with executive policy preferences.”
