WASHINGTON — The federal government’s steward of funding for public broadcasting stations sued the Trump administration on Thursday over its pause in grant payments for upgrading the nation’s emergency alert system.
The nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal lawsuit says a recent hold on grant funds for modernizing the alert system hampers the ability of federal, state and local authorities to issue real-time emergency alerts.
The CPB sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C., to challenge its Feb. 18 hold on the $40 million grant program for the Next Generation Warning System.
FEMA didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit’s allegations. The suit says FEMA hasn’t attempted to explain a basis for suspending the grant payments.
The national Emergency Alert System helps government officials issue alerts about disasters, including flash floods, blizzards, tornados and hurricanes.
The CPB, which Congress created in 1967, is the largest source of funding for public radio and television. The private corporation says it distributes over 70% of its funding to more than 1,500 public radio and television stations.
The CPB administers the Next Generation Warning System grant program for FEMA. The grants help pay for public media stations to upgrade their emergency alerting equipment. The program has over 40 grant recipients.
Kathy Merritt, a CPB official, said FEMA hasn’t informed the corporation when or even if the program’s funds will be restored.
“To protect public media stations from financial harm, CPB has no recourse other than to bring legal action against FEMA under the Administrative Procedure Act,” Merritt said in a statement.
The CPB is seeking a court order for FEMA to immediately lift the hold so that the corporation and the grant recipients can be reimbursed for expenses.
The lawsuit says FEMA’s “hold” status in the grant system leaves public media stations across the country on the hook for a total of nearly $1.9 million in unreimbursed expenses.
“At no point has FEMA indicated that CPB has done anything that would call this grant into question,” the lawsuit says. “At no point has FEMA indicated that it is cancelling the grant or taking any other adverse action with respect to the grant.”
___
