Congressional Republicans are considering attaching strings to emergency aid to California as wildfires continue to burn large swaths of Los Angeles. Some House Republicans have floated leveraging the aid in debt-limit negotiations with Democrats, while others are coalescing around conditioning aid on some unspecified policy change to prevent future wildfires, write Nicholas Wu, Daniella Diaz and Camille von Kaenel. The posture of making emergency funding conditional (which President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to do) is stoking rage on Capitol Hill and off. “That’s just one of the most cruel and ignorant things you could possibly say, especially in this moment,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), one of many incensed Democrats. Santa Barbara-area Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) called it ridiculous.
“It’s a fucking shame, and it speaks to the values of my colleagues on the other side that want to play politics with those that are hurting right now and being impacted by a natural disaster, ” he said. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that while he does not want to “play politics” with disaster aid, California’s policy decisions “made this exponentially worse” and needs to be addressed.
“Those are things that have to be factored in with regard to the level of aid and whether there are conditions upon that,” the Louisiana Republican said at a POLITICO Live event this week. Los Angeles is home to one of the most experienced fire fighting forces in the country, and the region has adopted some of toughest fire prevention policies in the West. For example, unlike most other states, California requires rebuilding efforts to use fire-resistant materials. Still, unusually hot and dry winter temperatures turned the area’s lush vegetation into explosive tinder. And densely packed urban areas helped quickly spread the blaze. That overwhelmed the city’s fire department, which had to call in help from other states. Republicans have been vague on what conditions they want to tie to emergency funding, though Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) cited “forestry management” and “building out reservoir systems.” Such measures likely wouldn’t prevent a repeat of the fires, however, as they are in urban areas and Los Angeles’ fire hydrant issues aren’t linked to the state’s water management system. Other GOP lawmakers bristled at setting that kind of political precedent. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who saw parts of his state ravaged by Hurricane Helene last year, told reporters conditioning aid is “not a good thing to do.” And Rep. Young Kim of California said debate about policies should come later, after Southern California communities are safe.
Fires in the Los Angeles region, which continue to rage, have killed at least 25 people, destroyed over 12,000 homes, schools and businesses, and left thousands without power.
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