Chicago, IL— Monday’s storms wreaked havoc in Illinois, with families losing their homes, and severe flooding and winds forcing communities to spend weeks recovering. Illinois is now leading the country for most tornadoes in 2026, experiencing 178 tornadoes so far this year. Despite that, the Trump Administration continues to withhold FEMA assistance and Illinois Congressional Republicans refuse to call out these political games. Illinois Democrats, like Attorney General Kwame Raoul, continue to fight for our state’s recovery.
“When Republicans withhold disaster relief and deny climate change, Illinoisans suffer. Despite what Trump and the ILGOP says, climate change is real, communities in our state are struggling, and Illinois Democrats will continue to advocate for the urgent release of disaster relief funding—without conditions,” said DPI spokeswoman Gwen Pepin.
Under Attorney General Raoul’s leadership, Illinois joined a dozen states in suing the Trump Administration for the immediate release of over a billion dollars in FEMA funding. This lawsuit comes after The Trump White House has unconstitutionally demanded that in order to receive disaster relief funding, states must comply with their inhumane immigration crackdowns and electoral overreach. A similar lawsuit to release FEMA funding was filed and won by a coalition led by AG Raoul last year.
According to a Politico analysis, this year Democratic-led states had only 23% of their disaster requests granted compared to 89% for Trump’s Republican allies. Illinoisans were denied assistance twice after July and August 2025 storms caused severe flooding in the Chicago area and Kankakee County was denied FEMA assistance after a devastating March tornado. The analysis also found that the Trump administration forced destroyed communities in blue states to wait twice as long on requests.
