Twenty Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, challenging the elimination of a long-running grant program that helps communities guard against damage from natural disasters.

FEMA announced in April that it was ending the funding to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.” The program saved taxpayers more than $150 billion over 20 years, the plaintiffs said.

State prosecutors want to restore $4.5 billion in canceled funding and to declare that FEMA's acting administrator is serving "unlawfully."