Twenty US states sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday with the aim of blocking the cut of funding to a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pre-disaster mitigation program.

The lawsuit specifically seeks to preserve the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, a multi-billion-dollar initiative created in 2018 that funds infrastructure projects to protect communities from severe weather and natural disasters. The lawsuit asserts that FEMA’s termination of the program was illegal on three grounds. First, the states claimed that the program’s termination is directly contrary to Congress’ statutory directive to the defendants to prioritize mitigation, which violates the Separation of Powers Principle. Second, the lawsuit alleged that FEMA’s redirection of funds allocated to the BRIC program is unconstitutional since it violates Congress’ spending powers. Lastly, the plaintiffs stated that neither FEMA’s last administrator Cameron Hamilton nor his successor, David Richardson, were lawfully appointed by the Trump administration due to the failure to meet statutory qualification requirements.

The program’s shutdown came as a shock to Americans, given recent flooding that devastated Texas earlier this summer. On that point, the lawsuit stated:

The impact of the shutdown has been devastating. Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding. Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have invested millions of dollars for planning, permitting, and environmental review are now threatened. And in the meantime, Americans across the country face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.

FEMA is a government agency whose purpose is to help US citizens before, during and after natural disasters. The agency provides resources to those areas hit by natural disasters by working with stakeholders, including individuals and state and local governments. The BRIC program funds 75 percent of infrastructure projects, with 90 percent in rural areas, that are used to protect communities from natural disasters. The program engages in pre-disaster mitigation by building storm shelters, flood walls, and durability improvements to already standing buildings.

The states on Wednesday requested that the court impose a preliminary injunction so the program can run functionally while this case is ongoing.